


The morning sun is rising, And it's kissing the damned

by Ehh_nej_tak_du



Category: One Piece
Genre: (They dont know what that means though), ASL Brothers, AU Modern Universe, Ace is kind of feral ngl, Aggression, Angst with a Happy Ending, Asexual Character, Blowjobs, Bottom!Luffy, Child Neglect, Dissociation, F/M, First Times, Fluff, Foster Care, M/M, Mental Facilities, Minor Character Death, No Devil Fruits, No Romance, Referenced Car Crash, Referenced sickness, Secluded upbrining, Self Harm, Sibling Incest, Some humour, Top!Ace, Twin sabo/Ace, Violence, dangerous codependency, minor OCs - Freeform, sexual acts
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-06
Updated: 2021-01-26
Packaged: 2021-03-17 09:21:19
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage
Chapters: 12
Words: 31,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28597629
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ehh_nej_tak_du/pseuds/Ehh_nej_tak_du
Summary: “I can take care of Luffy and Sabo just fine,” He says.“I’m sure you can, but you’re not enough.” She says, tells him that, as if he doesn’t already know, as if he’s not already angry at himself for it.“Don’t you want them to be happy and safe? To be cared for?” She asks him, and the way she talks makes him feel like he has to choose between himself or them, on who deserves the happiness.Which, to him, was never a choice in the first place.Or; When Rouge dies in a car accident, CPS separates Ace and his brothers from each other.
Relationships: Akagami no Shanks | Red-Haired Shanks/Makino, Monkey D. Luffy & Portgas D. Ace, Monkey D. Luffy/Portgas D. Ace
Comments: 2
Kudos: 50





	1. Luffy's birth

**Author's Note:**

> Hello!  
> So few things;
> 
> This was originally written as a one shot, but it ended up being... far too long, so I divided it into different chapters. This is also why some chapters are shorter than others. The first chapter is the shortest. 
> 
> The POV changes, but it's mostly Ace. Sometimes, it's both D brothers.
> 
> I will post warnings in each chapter notes, as well as mention if there's any smut in there, as not all wants to read that. 
> 
> Please note that theres no romance between the bros, this is not meant to be a 'fall in love' fic.
> 
> Other than that, I hope you enjoy!

^^ = Larger timeskip

*** Smaller timeskip

Ace, Sabo and Roger are all waiting in the hallway of the hospital.

Normally he’d be by Rouge’s side in this situation, but he can’t leave their two toddlers alone.

It’s the evening on May 5th, and he’s been sitting for hours in the closed off building, he bounces Ace on his knee while Sabo’s sleeping, tucked into his side.

Honestly, this one was an accident, they had their hands full with the twins already, but when Rouge told him she hadn’t gotten her period that month, they both had a resigned air about them, and a trip to the doctor later they had their confirmation.

Rogue was pregnant with (thank god) a single kid. 

And now, she was in labor. 

They don’t know if their child is going to be a boy or a girl, they didn’t care either way, but they have a name prepared for both cases, like they did with the twins when they were born a couple years ago.

His musings are interrupted when a door opens and a tired looking nurse steps out, he recognizes her from earlier when they’d first arrived.

He stands up, carefully balancing Sabo and Ace on his hips, Sabo doesn’t wake up and Ace starts to play with his coat pockets.

“How is she?” He asks, and the nurse smiles.

“She and the baby both made it splendidly, do you need me to take your sons before you meet the newest addition?” she asks, and Roger smiles at her gratefully, taking her up on the offer.

He hands her Sabo first, he doesn’t stir and she places his head gently on her shoulder, before reaching out and taking Ace as well. Ace watches Roger curiously, but his attention is quickly taken when he notices the nurse's earrings. 

He walks over to Rouge, who looks up at him, she looks tired, no scratch that, she looks  _ exhausted _ . 

She’s holding a bundle of blankets in her arms, making cooing noises at the baby.

Roger stands by her side, and she looks away from the baby to look at him again, a small smile gracing her lips.

“Do you want to hold him?” She asks, and his eyes glint in return _ -a boy- _

He nods and leans down to carefully scoop the bundle. 

The baby, his newest  _ son _ , looks at him with wide blue eyes, he has a little bit of hair (blonde? Another blondie?) and giggles at Roger, who absolutely  _ melts _ . 

Welcome to the world,  _ Luffy _ .


	2. Roger & Rouge

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Warnings of implied car crash.  
> Talks of death.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ^^ = Larger timeskip  
> *** Smaller timeskip

^^

Luffy’s three when his father dies.

It wasn’t sudden by any means, but for his small mind, he can’t exactly comprehend that he’s never going to see the man again. 

He watches his mother who is sitting by his fathers still occupied hospital bed, a white sheet placed on his face.

Standing by Rogue’s sides, each with a hand in her dress and wet eyes, are his brothers.

Sabo and Ace don't say anything.

Sabo, despite being so young, had somehow understood that when Roger left a couple months ago, saying  _ ‘’I love you boys, take care of your mother, take care of Luffy’’ _ , that was his goodbye. He never expected for their father to return.

Ace, on the other hand, is angry. He doesn’t understand what was so urgent Roger had to leave and decide to never come back to them.

Ace wonders, for the first time in his short life, if it’s because of him.

He would often cry for his father, would cry to be held after a bad nightmare, and sometimes Roger didn’t have the time, he’d tell him that Luffy was sick or Sabo wasn’t faring well either, and now Ace wonders, with as much seriousness as a young child can muster, if that was his fathers way of saying he didn’t love him anymore.

Ace doesn’t ask his mother though, because she’s crying, and Ace hates crying.

^^

Life after that event is different. 

Rogue doesn’t smile in earnest anymore, she tries to fool them, and she does sometimes, but she somehow never manages to fool her youngest.

On those nights she finds Luffy’s favourite stuffed toy in her bed.

She wonders how her boys are, she can see they’re sad, and that they don’t understand, but she doesn’t know what to tell them, so she decides to wait till they’re a little older and things have calmed down. 

It’s hard to raise three kids alone, they’re all energy-filled kids, and she fears it’ll get worse once Luffy is older, the three year old has taken to chasing his brothers and mimicking everything they do. 

Her friends help. Rayleigh often watches them, and Luffy adores her old friend so much he actually sits somewhat still whenever he visits.

Other friends visit and help her, too, and the emptiness Roger left behind gets better as time goes on.

Ace remembers thinking to himself that his mothers smile is finally coming back.

And then he remembers thinking he must have jinxed it.

Luffy and Ace are alone at home, Ace is 8 years old and is watching TV while Luffy is playing with some crayons next to him on the floor. 

This doesn’t happen often, only when Rogue needs to get something at the grocer, since they live near the edge of the town, the nearest shop is a 15 minute drive. 

She took Sabo with her, and if one of the twins goes the other stays back to make sure Luffy doesn’t get into trouble. Ace doesn’t mind, he enjoys the peace.

The phone on the wall rings, and Ace gets up from the couch and drags a chair towards the wall so he can reach it.

He pulls it off with a clink.

“Hello?” 

“Hi there. Is this the Portgas residence?” A woman asks, and although her tone is kind, Ace gets a bad feeling.

“Yes, why, you got a problem with that?” He says, rude. He hears Luffy snicker in the background, he’s sure his brothers staring at him, crayons all but forgotten.

The woman gives what sounds like a polite laugh.

“Okay good. I just wanted to make sure. You must be Ace, then? Is your little brother there?” 

“How do you know who we are?” He asks.

“My name is Tsuru. I’m with the CPS, but I’m calling from the hospital. I’m gonna go and pick the two of you up, and then we’re going to see your mother and your brother.” 

Ace’s bad feeling increases by tenfold, and as if he can feel it, Luffy stops laughing and is looking at him intently. 

“Okay” he says and hangs up. 

“Are we getting bad news again?” His younger brother asks, and Ace sometimes really hates how perspective Luffy can be sometimes.

“I don’t know, but I have a bad feeling about this”

Luffy nods.

There’s a knock on the door.

It’s a middle aged woman with her hair in a neat bun, and she is smiling at them, but Ace’s hackles rise and he unconsciously stands in front of Luffy who fists the back of his shirt.

Her eyes are full of familiar pity, and Ace decides he doesn’t want whatever news they’re getting.

Tsuru takes his hand gently, and they both follow her out the door.

On the ride there she doesn’t say anything, she seems to have figured out it won’t be well received at the moment, but she also gets the feeling the boys know what's coming.

They pull in at the hospital, and she nods at her co-workers, there’s two of them.

She doesn’t want to separate them, but there weren't any families able to take all three, especially on such short notice, so instead she’ll be leaving each family with the others contact information so the brothers can keep in touch.

Her coworkers all go and settle down with paperwork, she brings them to a hospital room where there are two beds.

The sound of one heart monitor beeping echoes through the room.

Luffy grips Ace’s hand tight, his eyes already wet.

Tsuru lets go of Ace’s other hand, and Ace weakly walks up to the first bed, a body is laying there with a white sheet on its-no- her face. Her long curls framing the covered face and spilling onto the pillow.

Ace doesn’t need to see underneath the sheet to know who it is.

They walk to the other bed where his brother, Sabo, is laying, his arm and the half of his face is covered in bandages. 

Ace can see him breathing though, and no sheets, Sabo is okay.

He feels Luffy’s hand shake slightly and looks to his brother, whose eyes are closed, he’s crying.

Ace wants to cry, but for some reason, he can’t.

He wonders to himself, the second time in his life, if everyone who comes into contact with him has to leave like this. 

He wonders what’s wrong with him.

**

It gets worse.

When Luffy has fallen asleep, likely exhausting himself with his crying, Tsuru’s coworkers return.

She speaks with them, but they’re whispering so Ace can’t hear them from where he’s sitting in the hospital chair by Sabo’s bed, Luffy asleep on him.

He feels possessiveness sweep over him as he looks at the women coming towards them, and he curls his arms tighter around his brother.

“It’s alright, we’re not gonna hurt either of you.” The woman next to Tsuru says. The one has left, and Tsuru looks at him with more pity.

“Then what do you want?” he asks, glaring at them.

“We’re with Child protective services, and when children like you end up having no place to go, or no family to take care of them, it’s up to us to find them a place.” Tsuru carefully says, and Ace’s glare worsens. 

“I can take care of Luffy and Sabo just fine,” He says. 

“I’m sure you can, but you’re not enough.” She says, tells him that, as if he doesn’t already know, as if he’s not already angry at himself for it.

“Don’t you want them to be happy and safe? To be cared for?” She asks him, and the way she talks makes him feel like he has to choose between himself or them, on who deserves the happiness.

Which, to him, was never a choice in the first place.

***

Ace helps them load Luffy into a car that one of the coworkers will be driving, Luffy hasn’t woken yet.

He sits his brother down carefully on the backseat and puts the seatbelt on, Luffy stirs and opens his eyes, large warm brown eyes track his brother’s face.

“Ac?” He mumbles.

“Hey Lu. Don’t worry buddy, it’s gonna be alright, okay?” Ace says and lets a hand go through his brother's dark locks that resemble his own.

“Whe’r we goin?” Luffy asks sleepily.

“I won’t be going with you” Ace says and Luffy wakes hurriedly, blinking at Ace as if he just uttered the most unthinkable act known to man.

“Are you leaving too? Are you joining mom and dad?” Luffy asks and Ace’s facade that everything is okay nearly breaks.

“No, don’t worry. Even if I’m not there, I’m never leaving you. You’re going to a new house, where you’ll meet new friends, and one day you’ll see me again” Ace promises.

Ace always keeps his promises, so Luffy nods.

“See you soon?” Luffy asks, Ace smiles.

“Yea, see you soon” he confirms, leans away and closes the door.

It’s only when the car is far enough away that Ace let’s himself cry.


	3. Luffy, Law and Corazon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luffy arrives at his new home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ^^^ = Larger timeskip  
> *** = Smaller timeskip

When Luffy first arrives, he’s not sure what to make of the man.

He’s told he’s going to be living with a man and his adopted son until he’s 18. Luffy doesn’t care much, he’s excited to see if he’ll get a playmate. 

When he gets out of the car, he notices there’s boxes, only a few, out in front of a yellow brick house. And a man, very tall man, with blonde hair is talking to the woman that brought him here.

Unsure of what to do with himself, Luffy stands still. 

The door opens and a young lanky boy walks out, his dark eyes land on Luffy and Luffy thinks this must be the man's son. The kid doesn’t react to his presence at all, he walks over to who Luffy suspects is his father, tucking on his leg.

“Cora-san, I finished tidying up the extra room besides mine.” 

The man, Cora-san? Looks down at the boy, and smiles at him before reaching down to ruffle the kids dark hair.

“Good job Law! Thanks for the help, I really appreciate it.” He says, and the kid, Law, smiles at him before he goes back inside.

Cora-san bows slightly to the woman, before he starts walking towards Luffy who has to crane his neck to meet his eyes at this distance.

He leans down in a crotch and smiles sweetly at Luffy, who notices the man has a mark on his face beneath his eye. 

“Hi there, Luffy right?” he asks and Luffy nods.

“Starting today, you’re going to be living with Law and me. Law is my son, he’s 11 years old. If I’m not there, you can ask him if you need help, alright?” he says and Luffy nods again.

“Go ahead and get settled, I’m going to bring these boxes to your room, and then we can sort through this together while getting to know each other, sound good?” He says again and holds out a hand for Luffy to take.

Luffy takes the hand. 

^^^

It’s been around five years since he started to live with Law and Cora-san (whom he learned was actually named Rosinante and Cora-san was a nickname, huh).

He’s still waiting to see Ace and Sabo again.

His brothers will come for him one day, but he doesn’t mind waiting, he likes Cora-san and Law.

Even if they’re not family.

It’s not like it's a bad place, it’s just lonely.

Law doesn’t really want to play. Luffy really admires him though, Law is super smart! He wants to be a surgeon, and Luffy believes in him with all his heart that he will be the absolute best surgeon out there. 

But because the teen is so busy studying, he doesn’t have time to put up with Luffy’s antics.

Luffy does go to school though, but most don't want to associate with him because they’re scared of Law.

He doesn’t want to be friends with people who are like that, anyway.

He asked Law if he could go and buy some candy at the convenience store by the corner that they always go to. Not that the teen said anything about it other than a grunt, which he guessed means ‘do was you want, don’t bother me’.

And Cora-san is at work (he works most days but is always home by evening) 

So Luffy is walking there by himself. 

The street is mostly empty (well it is early) and barely 10 minutes later he’s standing by the entrance to the store.

Before he can enter, a hand lands on his shoulder.

He stops and spins around, startled, and meets a familiar freckled face. He smiles, he smiles a smile so big, a smile he hasn’t smiled in years and throws himself at the boy.

“Ace!!”


	4. Ace's arrival

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What happens after Ace says goodbye to Luffy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings:  
> Child neglect  
> Child punishment  
> Unhealthy relationship
> 
> ^^^ = Larger timeskip  
> *** = Smaller timeskip

After saying goodbye to Luffy, Ace had been escorted back to Sabo’s room by Tsuru.

“Will.. Will Sabo be alright?” he finds himself asking the woman, who smiles nicely at him.

“The doctors believe he’ll make a full recovery. Right now they’re keeping him asleep because his head might make it worse” She tells him, and Ace feels inclined to believe her.

“When am I leaving? Who will take him?” 

“My coworker will be bringing you to your new place soon. We wanted to give you the opportunity to see your brother before you left. Once Sabo is cleared, he’ll be heading out as well.” Satisfied with her answer, he nods. 

It’s a couple minutes later that her coworker arrives, holding out a hand for Ace to take with a small smile on her lips.

Ace takes it, but doesn’t look at her after that.

The trip to his new place is silent, the woman had attempted to start an easy conversation, but gave up after it became evident Ace wasn’t gonna answer.

They stop in front of a white and gray brick two tier house, it looks simple and is attached to a housing complex. 

He sees boxes out front, and the woman walks over to greet another woman who’s standing by a white mailbox. 

Ace doesn’t have Luffy’s judgement of character, but he feels a chill of wrong run down his spine as he meets the woman.

Her kind smile meets her eyes, but he doesn’t feel like she’s looking at Him as a person.

It reminds him of the looks Luffy sends meat. 

He doesn’t like it.

“This is Iyasu, she’s going to be your guardian starting today, Ace” the coworker says, and Ace looks away from her gaze. 

The woman, Iyasu, takes one of the boxes with her, before coming back for the other.

Ace hasn't noticed that the coworker left.

“Come on in honey, let me show you to your room” 

She says and Ace reluctantly follows her.

The inside is clean, he thinks, and the hallway is adorned with pictures of what he thinks must be the woman's family. 

He peeks into a kitchen, also clean, and a living room opposite of it, there’s a couch, a TV and some cat toys in a box by the couch. 

They walk upstairs, and he’s to the room at the end of a short hallway that has two light switches in each end. That’s weird, Ace thinks. 

His room has a bed, a drawer, some toys here and there and a single light bulb hanging from the ceiling. 

The walls are painted green, but there’s also spots of bare walls here and there. 

“Please wait here while I get your stuff” Iyasu says, Ace doesn’t reply.

She’s quick to return, and places the two boxes on the floor.

“You can put your clothes in the drawers as you’d want. I’m getting take out for dinner, so let me know if there’s anything you don’t like” She says with a smile, and wonders if they’re celebrating his arrival or something.

“I’m not really picky, so it can be whatever” He says and she nods before leaving. 

She leaves the door open, and Ace really really wants to close it and put a barrier between them. There’s no window, but there’s a lightbulb so he’ll just turn on the light. 

He walks over, only to pause.

There’s no lightswitch? 

Confused, he searches every wall in the room but sure enough, there’s an outlet in the corner, but no lightswitch.

Ace remembers seeing the two lightswitches in the hallway and tries the one outside his door.

It works.

_ “Why is the lightswitch outside my room?”  _ He thinks to himself, the bad feeling from earlier gets worse.

***

“Ace, come down for a moment!” Iyasu calls. Ace has taken to stay cooped up in his room, usually drawing or playing to pass the time. He can’t say he’s having fun, but he’s not too bored either. 

Iyasu doesn’t seem to care either way.

Trotting downstairs, he’s met with a stranger who’s smiling at him much like Iyasu did.

“This is Ronnie, he often stays here for a couple days Ace. Listen to him as well okay?” Iyasu says, Ace just nods.

He’s about to go back upstairs when a hand on his shoulder stops him.

He glances back to look at Ronnie.

“Where are you going?” 

Ace blinks and looks away from the man's eyes.

“Uh. My room?” 

“Why? Let's spend some quality time together as a family” Ronnie says, and Ace almost retorts back that he’s Not their family, but the look in his eyes stops him.

He mutely nods in agreement.

They go to the living room, and Iyasu gives him some colouring paper and crayons. It makes him think of Luffy, he hopes his brother is doing okay.

He sits on the floor by the couch and listens to Iyasu and Ronnie talk, or well, he hears they’re talking but he’s not listening to what they’re saying.

He’s startled when Ronnie starts to yell.

“You’re too damn loud, will you stop that!” He says and Ace realises he’s looking at him.

“I’m just colouring” Ace says, because he is. How could that be loud?

That was the wrong thing to say. 

“Go to your room.” Ace is confused, he thought they wanted him to stay? He takes too long to listen apparently, because Ronnie is yelling at him again.

“I said go to your room!” 

He’s standing now and Ace feels the fangs of fear start to bite into him.

Ace swallows and is too slow to get up, because Ronnie is picking him up and walking up the stairs.

Iyasu is running behind him, and Ace thinks  _ Yes, stop him please, I’m scared, I don’t understand what I did wrong _

He’s all but thrown into his room, he looks up from the ground to look at Ronnie who’s looking at him with a sneer, and Iyasu is behind him.

“Ronnie... “ She says and Ace feels hope well up inside of him.

She sighs.

“Give me more of a warning, remember he’s sick! I know it’s annoying, but he can’t help it.” 

Ace blinks, confused.

_ Sick?  _

_ Who is?  _

_ Does she mean me?  _

“That’s true. You’re right. I overreacted a bit, it’s not his fault he’s a nutjob” Ronnie smiles a sweet smile at Iyasu, and Ace feels dread coming over him as they’re closing the door.

He hears a click.

They locked the door.

Ace decides to walk back to his bed, careful steps so he doesn’t step on his toys, and lays down.

He allows himself to cry into his pillow, and wonders what he did wrong.

They didn’t turn on the light.

He suddenly understands why the lightswitch is outside the door.

***

***

In the few weeks he’d been staying with Iyasu and by extent Ronnie, he’s learned a couple things.

  1. When Ronnie’s not there, Ace can do whatever he wants.
  2. When Ronnie Is there, Ace has to sit in the living room and be quiet. If he’s noisy, he’s locked in his room until the next day, no meals, no bathroom breaks. If he’s loud, they extend the period spent in there.
  3. Iyasu thinks, for some reason, that Ace is sick somehow.   
And finally;
  4. Iyasu doesn’t bother cleaning or cooking, Ace has tried to recreate meals he’d seen his mom make now and again, but he’s had mediocre success at best.



Today he’d be starting school.

He was driven there by Iyasu, even though it’s barely a block away, and she hugs him and tells every teacher they meet that he’s a bright child for his age.

He doesn’t know why she does it.

He’s inserted into the class easily enough, and the other kids seem fine.

He doesn’t care much.

It’s during a lunch period where he’s playing with some dragon figures that some of the other kids approach him.

“Hey!! Ace right?” Kid two asks.

Ace nods.

“Do you wanna play dragons with us?” Kid one asks.

Ace cocks his head, intrigued. 

“Play dragon?” 

“Yes! We act like we’re a dragon pack flying about, finding treasure for our hoard!” Kid two says, and Ace feels excitement. He wants to play with them. 

He nods at them, they grin.

They’re running along on the grass field around the school playground, arms spread out and flapping as if wings, and Ace can’t help it, he roars and laughs, feels more carefree than he has in a while. 

The other two play fight over treasure, and Ace bares his teeth. He feels excitement go through him and he launches at them, claws at the ready.

“OW!” Kid two exclaims as Ace’s nails attach themselves to the kids shoulders. He roars again and bites the kid. The kid is crying and hitting Ace’s head and Ace is ecstatic.

Who knew that play-fighting like this could feel so good?

His heart beats fast in his ribcage as he lets go of the kid who’s rolling on the ground before settling in a fetal position away from Ace, he’s still crying. But Ace can’t hear it over the blood in his ears. The other kid is staring at him, he looks afraid and turns around to run away.

Ace didn’t think he could grin harder, and gives chase. 

Kid is fast, Ace can respect that. 

But he’s not fast enough.

He barrels into the kid, biting him in the shoulder through the shirt, but the kid stops and yelps in pain.

The kid is screaming at him to stop it.

Ace doesn’t want to stop. 

He keeps going, biting, scratching the kid and any kid who interferes trying to remove him, and jumping on the taller kids are fun, he thinks some might hit him, try to kick him off each other, but he clings with all his might. 

Someone gets a hold of the back on his shirt and lifts him off a kid (or they try to, at least), another one gets a hold of his arms and Ace growls, he wants them to let him go, but he also can’t help but enjoy the struggle as they hold him down.

His arms are held, and he’s back on the ground, there’s someone talking to him but Ace finds he can’t focus on what they’re saying.

He’s never felt such a rush.

What was that? 

Where did all that intensity come from?

“Ace!” Someone yells and he jolts, ready to get down and be still, to sit still, but he blinks and realises it’s his new teacher who’s talking.

He looks around him, another teacher, one he doesn’t recognise, is holding onto his arms in a death grip. Ace looks up to his teacher again.

“What?” He says and the teacher looks angry. It’s unnerving him.

“I asked you, what in the world do you think you’re doing?” The teacher repeats.

“Playing” Because that’s what they were doing, they were having fun and playing dragons.

“Does this look like playing to you?” The teacher gestures to a couple kids, two that looks older than him (maybe 10 or 11?), and one of the kids that invited him to play.

The older kids are helping the crying kid off the ground. 

“We were just playing dragons,” He says again. The teacher doesn’t ask him anything else.

“Apologise!” He says instead.

“Why?” Ace asks. He’s not sure what he did wrong, and he wonders if they’re going to punish him for it. Maybe that’s just how the world works and his mom was an odd one out.

He has no way of knowing. 

“Can you not see how scared the kids are? You hurt them” The teacher says, and Ace looks at the crying kid.

“Did he say I hurt him?” Ace asks. 

“It’s obvious!” 

“How?” Because Ace doesn’t understand.

“He’s crying” And that’s true, but Luffy would cry all the time, and Ace often cries now too. 

“Crying doesn’t always mean hurt” The teacher looks two seconds from yelling and Ace sits down, just in case.

The teacher doesn’t look at him weirdly for it, so Ace figures it must be the norm to be punished.

He realises it must be the norm, that Ace really is wrong.

“Still, I want you to apologise and not do it again” The teacher tells him, and Ace nods.

“Okay, I won’t play dragon with him again.” 

“And apologise to him”

“Even if I’m not sorry?” he asks, because he’s not. He had fun, after all. 

“It’s not you who were hurt.” 

Ace doesn’t understand what he means, he just nods and walks over to the now sniffling boy.

The boy has dark hair and brown eyes.

It makes him think of Luffy.

“I hate crybabies” he says, and he wants, no needs, him to stop crying.

He doesn’t want to look at him anymore.

He leaves the grass field, not bothering to look back. One of the teachers follows him, scolding him he thinks, but he’s not listening to him.

When he gets home that evening he starts to bring food with him to his room on whatever dishes are available. Though most of the food is in cardboard boxes anyway, so he realises it doesn’t matter either way. 

If Iyasu heard about what happened she doesn’t mention it, but Ace’s getting the feeling she doesn’t care.

After that day, Ace starts to play with other children, he doesn’t judge, he’ll play with anyone.

Giving chase and finally catching them is his favourite part.

^^^^

Ace is ten when Iyasu brings the next person back.

It’d been a while since he’d seen Ronnie, in fact, Ace thinks the last time he saw him was when he bit Ronnie so hard Ace lost a tooth.

That’d been a couple months ago, he thinks, but he’s not sure. 

Time has really been all over the place lately.

Much like last time, Iyasu calls him down and there he is, a tall lanky person that eyes Ace up weirdly.

Iyasu introduces him like she always does.

“This is my son, Ace. If you need him to do anything for you just tell him. He usually keeps to his room though.” 

“This yo kid? Didn’t you say he was sick or somethin?” the man says. Ace isn’t sure if he’s been told his name or not.

Iyasu holds herself before she speaks.

“He is.. He used to be the sweetest child as a kid, but suddenly he became violent and started attacking everyone in sight, claiming to be a wolf! I don’t know what’s wrong with him, and I’m alone to raise him.. It’s hard” She says, and Ace doesn’t bother trying to tell her he’s just playing.

The man hums.

“Have you considered signing him up for therapy or something?” He asks, eyeing Ace varily like most people do. 

“I’ve tried to reach out, but I have yet to get any response from anyone, not to mention the cost.. It’s expensive, and I only have one job that’s not too many hours, it’s too much work for me” She says.

The man looks him up and down, which again, most people do.

“When was the last time he showered, or brushed his hair?” The man says, gesturing to Ace’s extremely cluttered hair.

“I don’t know, Ace attacks me whenever I ask him to shower or try to brush his hair” 

Ace blinks, trying to remember when that happened. It doesn’t occur to him that she might be lying.

He does remember her saying the same thing when his teachers at his current school inquired about his footwear. He didn’t know he had any shoes to fight over, but apparently he does.

He doesn’t mind being barefoot all the time everywhere though, he’s gotten used to it over the years.

He shrugs inwardly, before he leaves to turn back to go upstairs.

He’s either there or outside playing by himself. 

***

Ace doesn’t know what to think of Manny.

He only learned his name from hearing Iyasu talking about him to someone over the phone as he was leaving the house. 

Manny is… Very different from Ronnie.

He doesn’t yell or ask him to sit and be quiet in the living room with them, in fact, all Ace has seen the man do is sit on the couch and watch tv.

Actually, Manny is always on the couch, surrounded by take out boxes and white bottles with screw tops, Ace doesn’t know what they are, but he doesn’t dare touch Manny’s things. 

Everythings fine for a while, but then the yelling starts.

Ace is in his room with the lights on (they’re Always on now, he can’t sleep alone otherwise.) 

Playing, or more like destroying, with some toys and some old soda cans he found laying around the house. 

He’s sitting between some old plates with mold on them, one of them has maggots on it too, but he pays it no mind. It’s not like it’s the first or last time he has roomies like those. 

“Where are my pills!?”

A loud yell startles him, Ace sits still for a moment, wondering when he’ll hear the  _ thumpthumpthump  _ coming up the stairs towards him, but nothing happens, no one’s coming.

He resumes his play.

“Sandra you bastard, you hid them from me didn’t you? I need Those pills!” Another shout.

Ace has no idea who Sandra is, but he’s glad he’s not in their place.

He continues playing as the yelling keeps going, keeping out one ear to make sure he has time to prepare in case someone decides to come upstairs.

“What the hell is wrong with you, how can you live in such a filthy place? And with a  _ Child  _ nonetheless???” 

Ace hears a voice yell, he doesn’t recognize the speaker, but it sounds like a young girl maybe. 

Could that be Sandra?

“He’s fine! It’s his own fault, if he was unhappy with the place he could clean and shower if he wanted!” 

Another yell, this time it’s Iyasu.

“He’s ten!! You can’t expect him to just do that?!” 

Sandra again.

Ace realises they’re talking about him.

He wonders what he’s done wrong this time for them to be this angry, and stops playing. 

Stepping over the old food, the plates, maggots and old clothes he hasn’t worn in a while, he crawls into his bed after getting the fruit flies off his stained bed sheets. 

He later learns Sandra is Manny’s daughter, she’s 14 and lives with a classmate after Munny and Iyasu kicked her out. 

Sandra still comes over often, and every time there’s a shouting match between them.

And every time, it’s about Ace.

He hates being the reason for all this conflict and all this anger.

And not for the first time, he wonders if there’s any way for him to disappear. 

His thoughts go out to Luffy and Sabo, and then wishes there was no need for him in.

Oh how he wished that’s the kind of world he lived in.

  
  


^^^

When Ace is 12, Iyasu tells him she finally got through to a medical ward who’ll be giving him therapy and lessons everyday. So he should be sure to get out of bed for it, and to not cut classes like he usually does.

Ace doesn’t care, school isn’t important to him and it’s not like it matters if he’s there or not anyway, but he nods still.

Every morning a taxi picks him up and drives him to the kids mental ward at the closest hospital, and there he meets a bunch of adults, and a bunch of kids.

The adults ask him a lot of questions he doesn’t know the answers to. 

He gets to sit in on a meeting between the director of the place and Iyasu. 

“This is my son, Ace.” She starts off, like always.

The director smiles at him. 

“It’s nice to meet you Ace,” He says, but Ace doesn’t want to talk to him, because adults always end up looking at him Like That. 

“So.. What’s troubling you, boy?” He asks, and Ace doesn’t understand the question, because Ace doesn’t have any troubles. 

He’s about to answer when Iyasu cuts in.

“Ace is.. Well, he believes to be a wolf. A feral animal. I keep catching him in looking around like people talk to him, and he answers them.. I’m worried of what he might be doing, because he doesn’t sleep at night, all he does is howl” She says.

Ace doesn’t understand why she’s saying that. 

The director doesn’t even blink at her, he simply nods. “I see”. 

“I’m sure we can get him back to good health in no time” He says, and Ace wonders what he means by that, he doesn’t feel sick or anything. 

He looks down at himself and his exposed limbs. He’s wearing shorts and a t- shirt, like always, he’s been wearing it for a couple months, he thinks. He scratches his arm with his long, never cut, nails, that match his bare toenails. His long black unruly hair itches like usual, but he doesn’t itch because the feeling of something moving underneath his nails makes him uncomfortable. 

Iyasu leaves after that, and Ace is escorted to a room where there’s a counter and a couch.

On the counter there’s a pair of clippers, a hair brush, a bucket, conditioner, and a bottle of some type of shampoo Ace thinks. 

There are two other adults there, Ace thinks they’re the directors coworkers.

“This is the kid I briefed you about.” He says behind him, and Ace looks at them looking at him.

He doesn’t see the Look yet, but he knows it’ll come, it always does.

“Why do you need two of us here, sir?” One of them asks.

“The boy's mother warned me that he might react violently, and if that happens I need one of you to hold him down.” 

Ace’s eyes widen at that.

_ Hold him down? What’re they gonna do to him???  _

The adults nod and one of them turns to look at Ace, it’s a woman. 

“It’s okay. I’m sorry if we scared you, please come sit down we just need to take a look at you” she says and beckons him to a place on the couch covered in towels. Ace feels a light push on his back and he puts his heels in the ground.

The director picks him up and Ace growls at him, he doesn’t know when he started to do it, but whenever he feels scared it just slips out. 

Baring his teeth, the other adult, a man, grips his wrist, gently but still firm, and together they sit him on the couch.

Ace’s eyes go back and forth between all of them, he’s scared, he doesn’t know what they’re going to do, what did he do wrong?? 

He bares his teeth and growls louder, he hopes, wishes desperately, that they somehow understand his wish that they _ Back off; don’t touch him; stay away; Please back off; back off; back Off; _

They don’t, and the woman grips his hair. He can’t stop the tears slipping down his cheeks, he can’t hear the whine and increasing growls that slips from his throat, all he can hear is his heartbeat resounding throughout his head as loud as a sirene. 

The male adult finally seems to realise the effect they have on him and gestures for all of them to step back from Ace, his teeth are grinding so hard his jaw hurts. 

“Sshh, it’s okay, we aren’t going to hurt you” the man says, tone low and calm, Ace’s growls die down in his throat and he takes a deep breath, startled to realise he’d forgotten to breathe. 

“What are you gonna do to me?” Ace asks, and he hates how his voice is so rough. Like a crybaby.

“We’re only checking you over.”

“What’s the things on the table for?”

“We were gonna brush your hair” He says, he’s on his knees so he can keep eye contact with Ace, but it makes Ace uncomfortable so he has to look away from time to time.

“Why?” He asks, because why would they brush his hair, why would it matter? 

The man blinks, not expecting such a question.

“Doesn’t your hair bother you? All tangly like that?” He asks.

“No” Because it doesn’t, it’s always been like that. Or well. Maybe not always? No, it hasn’t always been like that, because Luffy used to play with it. 

“Why not?”

“Should it? Even if it did, would it matter?” He asks, trying to understand why it feels like they’re insisting it should. 

“It’d feel better if it were untangled” The man tries.

“I don’t care either way” Ace says, and the adults take this as permission to go through with it.

They bring over the bucket behind him, and gently dunk his head. It’s cold.

The woman brings out the conditioner and applies it to his hair. It feels good as it helps to relieve some of the constant itching. 

Ace closes his eyes, daydreaming as he feels the way the woman goes through his hair, she’s careful with the brush but thorough. 

Ace doesn’t notice when the director leaves the room, but when he opens his eyes again at the feel of her towel off his hair, he doesn’t see him, only the other man.

“Okay Ace, I’m going to put this special shampoo in your hair. It’s not gonna hurt, but it will stink.” The woman tells her, and Ace turns to look at and at the black and green screw top bottle.

“Can I ask what it’s for?” 

The woman smiles at him a little worryingly, but she’s quick to cover it up.

Ace narrows his eye at that.

“It’s a treatment for headlice. You’re covered with them” She says.

Ace has no idea what she’s talking about.

“Head Lice?” He asks her.

“Yes, it’s small.. Bugs? If you will, that feeds on the blood of kids like you. They can be pretty common, but they’re also easy to get rid of. From the looks of it, you’ve had them for a while. Haven’t you noticed your hair being itchy?” She asks with a small smile.

“It itches often, yeah” He says.

“Why didn’t you tell anyone or ask someone?”

“I didn’t see the point” He says, because he doesn’t. 

He sees her look at her coworker with a look in her eyes that he doesn’t know, she looks at him and smiles a warm smile, but the look doesn’t disappear. 

He doesn’t like it. 

She was right, the shampoo stank, and he had to have it in his hair for a whole hour! His nose can be kind of sensitive, so that sucked.

The woman’s now combing his hair with a very small tiny brush like square, and the man is holding his hand. He doesn’t give a warning before suddenly going in and cutting his nails, and Ace growls on instinct in surprise. The man lets go and Ace retracts his hand like he’d been burnt.

“What are you doing?” He asks, and looks at the man, openly staring, to make sure there’s no threat. 

The man puts the clippers on the ground and puts both hands up to reassure him.

“I didn’t mean to scare you, I’m sorry. I want to cut your nails, is that okay?” He asks.

“Why?” Ace asks back, he likes his long nails, they’re easy to use to get distance whenever someone gets too close. 

The man seems to think over his answer.

“It’s better to have short nails to avoid causing hurt to you or others” He says. 

Ace admittedly doesn’t care about that, but he sees a stubborn look in the man's eyes. He’s not gonna give up on this, so Ace let’s him cut his nails while he clenches his teeth at the uncomfortable feeling he’s unused to.

He’ll just let them grow back out. 

He doesn’t want to be without his weapon.

***

Life at the facility is alright. There’s good food everyday! The kids don't mind playing rough with him, and the adults.. Well, at the start they never left him alone and they would do that lice treatment shampoo thing everyday, but now they actually let him have alone time. He doesn’t mind being with others, he loves playing, but he loves being alone, too.

That is, until that incident. 

For a few weeks, Ace’d been allowed to have a small room for himself, sometimes there’d be a nurse (that’s what he’d heard they were called, anyway) and they’d talk to him about stuff ( _ Like what he was playing today, what did he think about the food, did he have any dreams, life goals or fears? _ )

It didn’t take long for him to start talking to people who didn’t mind his playing, he would always tell the nurse about how he _ loved playing rough with the kids, loved chasing them, he really loved the food they made, he doesn’t have any dreams that he could think off, and he’s afraid of being alone in the dark.  _

The nurse would always smile at him and indulge him to talk further, and he enjoyed it. No one was shouting, no one was stomping or forcing him to do anything, no one thought he was too loud or too sick to do something. He really liked that.

He was sitting in his small room by himself playing with some figurines, when he heard the click.

Ace stopped, and looked up at the closed door. He got up and went towards it.

Then the lights went out.

Ace stopped.

_ What was going on? _

_ Was he being punished? _

_ What did he do wrong?  _

Slightly shaking, Ace tried the handle on the door.

_ It’s locked _

He tried again. It wouldn’t budge.

He tried yanking it, maybe if he  _ destroyed it _ , he’d get out? 

Nothing happened.

_ “Let me out”  _ He whispers to himself. 

Nothing happened. 

He tried the handle again. Still locked.

Unable to keep the growl down, he hits the door. 

It almost feels like playing, without the chase.

“Let me out” He tries again, louder this time.

No answer.

He thumbs the door again.

Again.

Again.

“Let me out” He yells between growling and whining.

His nails are short ( _ they  _ keep  _ clipping them  _ Off  _ -Why? _ )

He tries anyway with his nubby fingertips.

“Let me out”  _ Thumb  _ and a Whine “Let me out”  _ Thumb  _ and a growl “Let me out!”  _ Thumb  _ “ _ LET ME OUT _ ”  _ Thumb- _

He keeps going, voice raising as the urgency in his mind rises.

He steps off the door and starts to barrel into it.

He doesn’t register that he’s still screaming.

He doesn’t register his bruised knuckles or the bloody fingertips, or his wet cheeks.

After a particular harsh thumb, he stops and slides down the door. 

He crawls to a corner and hides his face. He’s scared and he doesn’t know what to do.

It’s only then he hears the click of the door. 

A nurse approaches him, he thinks he hears something about a reaction test or whatever, but he doesn’t bother raising his head till the nurse is closer.

When the nurse crotches, he looks up and Ace realises it’s the nurse he’s been talking to lately.

He might not have his nails anymore, but he has his teeth.

Ace  _ attacks _ . 

****

Ace doesn’t talk to them after that event.

Iyasu was called after he’d sprung on the nurse, Ace had bit so hard they’d needed stitches.

Ace doesn’t know what to do with the satisfaction that settles in his throat at that. 

He had a new nurse keep watch over him, and the kids tried to involve him in conversation, but he doesn’t want to talk to them.

When Iyasu comes, she tells them it’s their fault for not heeding her warnings about him, he’s a dangerous  _ sick  _ child, and that Iyasu does her best to be a good mother for him.

Ace for once doesn’t think she’s lying, because he Is sick isn’t he? Why else would they do all of that to him, why else would she keep saying it?

Is she truly his mother, and did his life before all this actually happen, or was that a daydream?

He has really vivid daydreams sometimes, he used to have them everyday when they’d lock him in the room and he needed a distraction, what if he Made up his old life?

What if his twin, Sabo, and his brother, Luffy, never actually existed? 

He doesn’t remember much of when he was younger, maybe it’s because he hadn’t dreamed up that life yet? 

Ace can believe it. No one but him knows his brothers, no one’s ever mentioned them.

Is he really hearing and seeing things like Iyasu, like his might be mother said?

She doesn’t look much like him except for her dark hair, but she did say he looks more like his father anyway.

Is that it?

Is that what’s wrong with him, is that why he was punished all the time? 

Ace finally feels like he understands why. He leaps into Iyasu’s arms and cries, telling her he’s so sorry, and his mother hugs him back.

It’s not long after he’s signed out of that facility. His mother signed him out when a nurse started to question her. Ace doesn’t want to go back anyway, so he follows her home.

Where Manny is on the couch surrounded by pills, where he can have his nails and hair as he wishes. 

^^^

Ace is 13, it’s summer and he’s out on one of his usual strolls. 

He’d been using his scooter that he found last year, and been going to different towns and different places, exploring. People usually leave him alone luckily, but if people get too close he’s not afraid to growl at them.

Not for the first time in his life does he wonder where he got that habit from.

His mother doesn’t mind his extended outings, and Ace is relieved, he doesn’t have to be home listening to shouting matches all day.

He’s in a new city, lazily going on his scooter, it’s hot outside but the cold metal against his bare feet really helps.

Rounding a corner, he stops and nearly slams into a brick wall.

On the other side of the street, a kid and a teen are walking together with a very tall man.

The kid had a small smile on his face, lagging behind the teen, the man kept glancing back at him to make sure he’s still following.

Ace would recognize that mop of black hair anywhere.

_ Luffy?  _

But wait - Does this mean Luffy is real?

If Luffy is real, what about his mother?

Wait, what’s going on? 

But what if it’s a coincidence, and it’s just a kid that looks like his made up brother?  _ Did that stuff happen? _

Shaking his head, he’s about to go over to the kid, but stops.

If Luffy Is real, then he can’t just go over there like this. Not with the adult and the teen there. 

He’ll wait, then. For Luffy to be alone. It doesn’t matter how long it’ll take.

It’s not like it’s the first time he’s been away for days anyway.

***

He gets his chance a couple days later.

He’s been sleeping in a nearby park beneath a bench, and has been scaling the area for signs of Luffy after tailing him the first time. Every time he sees him though he’s either accompanied by the teen or the adult or both, and Ace will have to be patient.

When he finally spots Luffy alone he nearly cheers.

Putting his scooter down by an alley wall, he walks up to his hopefully brother.

He’s standing by the door to a store, and Ace reaches out and puts a hand on Luffy’s shoulder.

He feels him jump, and lets the boy turn around to face him.

The kid looks at him, looks at his face, his large brown eyes taking in every detail - and Ace has to quelch the feelings of  _ ‘he isn’t real after all _ ’ before the kid, no Luffy’s, face breaks into such a large grin with so excited eyes - there’s no way the kid doesn’t know who he is.

He opens his arms and catches Luffy who throws himself at him.

“Ace!!” 

Ace’s arms close tight around his brother's body, and Ace is so relieved, so happy and so angry at himself for ever doubting the existence of his brother.

“Hey, Luffy” He says and his brother pulls back enough to smile at him, he looks like he doesn’t really believe he might actually be there, and Ace gets it.

He looks around and can see they’ve begun to gather attention from the adults around them, a growl rumbles lowly in Ace’s chest and he glares openly at anyone looking their way.

“Let’s go somewhere else” he says, and Luffy doesn’t question him.

“Hold on a second I just need to say something to the cashier” Ace nods at him and tells him to hurry, he doesn’t go with him just in case someone might ask about him later. 

Luffy rushes out of the store a couple minutes later and nods excitedly at Ace. Ace grabs his scooter and they’re off. 

They don’t stop walking till they’re in a park somewhere, and they’d been walking for quite a walk. They see a forest behind some fences at the edge of it, and trot over there. 

Ace climbs the fence and Luffy imitates him.

Finally sitting down, face to face, Ace looks at Luffy.

He looks good, he looks healthy.

Luffy looks at Ace, with his unbrushed hair, yellow teeth, long nails and filthy clothes and feet. He doesn’t comment on it, but he does wonder why his appearance is so different from what he remembers. 

“I didn’t know you lived in this city” Luffy says, and Ace blinks at his 11 year old brother.

“I don’t” 

Luffy cocks his head.

“You don’t?” 

“Nope, I don’t know where this city is, actually” 

Luffy blinks at that. 

“Huh. You’re weird, Ace” 

Ace laughs.

“So where are we going now?” Luffy asks, and watches as his brother looks at him with a confused stare.

“You..You’ll really stay here with me?” Ace asks. Because Luffy doesn’t look filthy, he looks well cared for. 

“Well duh! I’ve been waiting for you to come and get me” He says, like it’s the most obvious thing. And Ace promises himself he’s going to protect Luffy, he’s going to make sure he stays happy and healthy. 

“I don’t actually have a plan.. I saw you and kind of short circuited. But we can make a temporary base here, sleep during the day, and then during the night we can get food from restaurants carrying out leftovers.`` Ace suggests.

Luffy merely blinks at the idea before he nods. 

“You don’t mind that?”

“Nope, as long as I’m with Ace, then I don’t care what we do.” He says.

Ace nods at that.

“Oh what did you need to give the cashier?” Ace asks, remembering the event.

“Oh I just told him to tell Traffy and Cora-san thanks for letting me stay with them and to wish Traffy good luck” Luffy says and Ace is bewildered. Luffy had made up his mind to leave his home as soon as he saw Ace.

“Well it’s only midday, so should we get some sleep?” He asks.

Luffy, much too energetic for someone about to go to bed, chirps a loud “Yes!” before they bundle up together and fall asleep.

It’s the first time in years Ace falls peacefully asleep right away. 


	5. Acquiring a pipe

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finally reunited.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings;  
> Violence  
> Minor character deaths  
> Attempt at assault   
> Vivid description of heavy head injury  
> Blood
> 
> ^^^= Larger timeskip  
> *** = Smaller timeskip

Luffy wakes before Ace. He notes the black sky above them and decides it must be time for their nightly escapades. Ace’s plan has worked surprisingly well so far, though Luffy knows very well he’s only fed because his brother often foregoes his own share of food to make sure Luffy gets to eat. 

If he keeps doing it, then Luffy will battle his stomach and stop eating till he’s made sure Ace has.

He gently reaches out and shakes his brother awake, it doesn’t take long, during their separation his brother has gone from a heavy sleeper to an extremely light sleeper.

Ace blinks up at Luffy, taking in the night sky. Right, time to find food.

Smiling, he gets up and stretches, Luffy imitates him (like he does with most things he does) and stretches too. 

“Ready to go?” Ace asks and Luffy nods with a big sunny smile on his face.

They carefully trot through the forest and make it to the fence separating it from the park, Ace gives Luffy a horseshoe lift before he himself crawls over it. 

Their first stop is a restaurant that’s a 20 minute walk from the forest. Luffy really likes going there because the son of the owner always puts the leftovers on the trash can and not in it with a note attached to please eat it hungry. Ace didn’t let him eat it at first in case it was poisoned, but after witnessing other homeless people eat it with no problems, they decided to go back there more often than not despite the risks. 

A little more than halfway they pass a giant heap of trash that’s been dumped in a grassy field next to a bunch of rundown apartments and a couple alleyways, to get out of the street they have to go through a tunnel that’s right besides the trash. It’s Luffy’s least favourite part of the walk, he always says it reeks, but Ace doesn’t mind it too much as it kind of smells like Iyasu’s house and his now old room.

The low click clack of heeled shoes echoes through the tunnel, and Ace stops Luffy before they reach it. His brother grumbles weakly about being next to the trash, but Ace is too busy watching the tunnel opening to care. 

It’s two people, kind of swaying and laughing at each other and Ace growls, he needs to get Luffy and hide.

Arm reaching out and grasping Luffy’s hand, he pulls his brother towards the trash to hide, but Luffy stomps his heels in.

He hasn’t noticed the adults and Ace keeps trying to pull Luffy but Luffy starts to make noises, and Ace decides to just lift his brother.

But the adults have noticed them. He knows it, he can feel their disgusting gazes on his back and he gives up on trying to move his brother, instead he gets in front of him and growls at the approaching adults.

“Aww, that's cute kid” One of them says. He gestures to Ace who’s growls increase. Luffy starts to realise his mistake, and he fists the back of Ace’s shirt before catching the eyes of the other one. 

Ace feels that tell tale feel of the hunt that he knows so well.

But for some reason, this doesn’t feel fun.

_ Am I the one being hunted now?  _

The first one, the one who cooed at Ace, reaches out a dirty hand and pulls Ace, hard, grabbing him by the hair. 

“Ace!” Luffy says and Ace forces his eyes to open because Luffy has to know it’s okay, he’s okay, it’s fine. 

But Luffy isn’t looking at Ace, he’s looking at the man holding him coming towards him, and Luffy gets a wild glint in his eyes, he would know, cause he’s seen it in the mirror.

He looks like he’s going on a hunt.

And Ace wants his idiot brother to  _ stop  _ before  _ he  _ becomes the hunted. 

Luffy snarls, mimicking sounds he’s heard Ace make, and launches himself at the man holding Ace.

He lets go of Ace’s hair in surprise, the other man is coming towards him but Ace rolls out of the way and lands in the trash.

“Ahh!” A loud exclaim of surprise and pain makes him look up in a hurry, the man who was holding Ace is shaking his arm trying to make Luffy let go and-oh.

His brother is biting the man’s forearm. He’s hitting him, but Luffy isn’t letting go, and Ace wonders if this is how he would look whenever people had to pry him off other kids.

The other man pulls out a knife and Ace’s hackles rise. What is he doing? 

He looks around him for something, Anything, to help him save his brother.

The closest thing he finds is an old rusty pipe.

_ I can use this to push him away-  _

“!ARRRRRGH!” His blood runs cold and his eyes snap up.

The man stabbed Luffy, his brother is on the ground holding his face _ he’s bleeding- _

He sees red and charges, pipe ready behind him, and he swings it with all his might into the man with the knife’s knees.

He doesn’t register the squeals of pain, nor the sickening crunch of impact.

The man falls down and Ace swings back the pipe again and hits his hand.

He’s loud, too loud, people could find them like this,  _ people could hurt Luffy people could take him away- _

He swings back again, this time aiming for where the noise is coming from.

_ Crunch _

Again

_ Crunch _

Again

_ Crunch _

_ Crunch _

_ Crunch _

_ Again, again, again  _

_ Splat _

_ Splat _

_ Again AGAIN  _

He doesn’t realise the noise stopped at his third swing.

He feels a bit wet, when did it start to rain? 

“ACE!” He blinks and stops mid swing. He hears a heavy thud, he hears pain, and a slick sharp noise that sends tingles down his spine. Letting go with one hand, the other still clutching the pipe, he turns around and a little ways behind him is Luffy who’s sounds like he’s trying to catch his breath.

He’s covered in blood, and then Ace remembers his brother was stabbed.

“Luffy!” he exclaims and runs to him. He doesn’t let go of the pipe in case he’s gonna need to protect them again.

Pulling Luffy into a hug, he doesn’t register that his brother is holding something. He’s too relieved to feel his brother’s heartbeat, to hear him breathing.

_ “ _ Are you okay?” He pulls back from the hug and looks him over, there’s blood on his chin, nose, his left eye is clenched shut and there’s a bunch of dried and fresh blood sticking beneath it.

His eyes travel further down, there’s blood on his neck, clothes and both hands- ?

“Where did you get that knife?” He asks, finally realising Luffy’s been holding a bloody knife the whole time.

“The man dropped it when you hit his hand”

“Oh” Right he did that.

“Are you okay? Are you still bleeding?” He asks.

“I don’t know” 

“You’re a mess Luffy, you’re sticky and covered in blood” Ace smiles, playfully. He feels like it should bother him, but it doesn’t.

“It’s fine, it’s not my blood” He says and Ace blinks.

He notices he’s been kneeling on a man, a man with several knife wounds on his back”

Luffy looks like he’s waiting for him to freak out or scold him, but Ace would never do that.

It was self defense.

“Alright” He says, and he sees Luffy eye him confusedly, but Ace just smiles at him.

His head snaps up at the sound of more footsteps approaching. 

He pushes Luffy behind him again and growls, pipe at the ready. 


	6. Shanks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shanks meets two brats covered in blood.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings:  
> Blood   
> Talks of past child neglect 
> 
> ^^^= Larger timeskip  
> *** = Smaller timeskip

“Yasopp’s coming in to report tomorrow” Benn said, lighting up his cigarette. 

“That’s sooner than expected. Any trouble?” Shanks asks, not bothering to turn his head to look at his right hand man.

“No, but,” Benn stops talking, and this time Shanks stops. 

“What is it?”

“Sh!” 

He blinks, rude. He stays quiet though, because it’s not like Benn to shush him.

Okay yes it is, but Usually there’s a reason for it beyond teasing. 

He concentrates on the environment and there it is, he thinks, picking up echoes of… screaming? 

He looks to Benn,  _ let’s go.  _

They both dart towards the screams coming from the tunnel. He hears the click of Benn’s pistol, and Shanks pulls out his taurus from the back of his jeans. 

What they find at the end of the tunnel is not what he expected.

Benn stops right as they exit, the screams had stopped some time ago, but it’s not quiet by any means, the sound of growls? Fills the air and Shanks wonder if it’s a pack of wild dogs.

It’s not.

Stopping beside his friend, the shock fills his lungs as he takes in the scene.

There’s two children a little ways from them, both dark haired and covered in blood - the one in front more so than the other.

The tallest kid is the source of the noise, and he’s staring at them, no, he’s  _ warning  _ them, to not step any closer. 

By their feet, is what looks like a man who’s been stabbed a couple times.

Shanks knows he’s dead from the amount of blood that’s pooling beneath him.

Behind them and off to the side, is another man laying on his back, but where his head should be is a red mush of brain matter and blood. 

His eyes go back to the kids. The smaller one has started growling as well and has stepped out from the bigger one. He’s holding a bloody knife in two shaking hands. 

The taller one bares his teeth at Shanks and his grip on the dirty bloody pipe ( _ most definitely the thing that killed the other man, there’s hair and skull fragments between the blood on the pipe _ ) 

And the growls increase in volume. 

The kid's gaze doesn’t leave Shanks, and when Benn moves, his eyes flash between them “ _ Don’t move _ ” those steel brown eyes are telling them.

A snake of grief and sadness coils itself in his stomach, that look isn’t something that should be on a kids face.

He grunts, a command for Benn to stay still. His friend stops moving and the kid’s eyes refocus just on him.

He settles down on his knees, not caring if there’s blood or not on the ground, and he places his gun on the ground. 

Hands coming up in a placating manner, he hopes that it shows them he’s no threat. 

The growls slow down, the little one is watching him intently and meets his eye, and Shanks feels like he’s looking into his soul, checking for any remaining danger towards them. 

Shanks holds the gaze, trying to convey he means no ill intent. 

The kids are covered in so much blood that he can’t tell if they’re hurt or not, so he starts by asking them that.

“Are either of you hurt?” He tries to speak softly, cautious to Not pity them, he feels like that’s definitely going to set off the taller one.

The first kid looks at him with confusion and suspicion, he’s looking at Shanks like he can’t fathom why he would ask that.

The second kid lowers the knife and nods so gently that Shanks almost misses it.

“You are? Can I see?” He asks, and the kid nods again before taking a small step towards him.

The other kid doesn’t like this and grips his arm.

“Stop you idiot!” He whispers, or well, he tries to whisper.

“It’s fine! He wants to help!” The smaller one says and fights his hold.

“We don’t need help, I’ll patch you up!” 

“You’re not a surgeon! You can’t do that or I might get infected!” The kid says and Shanks and Benn startles, is the kid's injury so bad he’d need a  _ surgeon _ ??? 

The other kid looks like he knows the smaller one is right, but his distrust of Shanks and his friend is clouding his judgement.

“And how would you know that? You’re no surgeon either!” He says back.

“Law said so and he’s gonna be the best surgeon out there!” 

“Shut up and listen to me!” 

“No! They’re not gonna hurt us!” 

Shanks and Benn look at each other, Benn puts his gun away. 

“You don't know that. They might just be playing with us” 

“I do too! If they wanted to hurt us, they’d done so already!” The little one says and the taller kid's mouth closes with a resounding clink of teeth. 

The taller looks at Shanks and at Benn.

“Are either of you surgeons?” He asks, displeased and is glaring at them.

Benn blinks before he answers.

“I’m no surgeon, but I have a friend who’s a doctor and know a good thing or two about first aid.”

“First aid?” the small one asks.

“When someone gets hurt, the actions you take to help that person is first aid.” 

“And you can help him?” The taller one says, hand still around the little ones arm. 

“I can’t promise, but if you let me look at his injury, I might.” 

“Alright.” He says, but they can both tell he’s not happy about it as he and the little one walks towards Benn, who’s gone down on his knees much like Shanks is.

Benn smiles at the little kid, the taller one stands at the side, one hand on the bloody pipe and one hand clutching the little ones. 

The little one smiles back at Benn. Benn’s smile drops at that, the kids teeth are red stained with blood - internal injuries then?

“Where were you hurt?” He asks. Shanks turned around to look at the scene and caught the worried glint in his friend's eye. He doesn’t move closer, the taller one’s gaze shifted to his with a clear message -  _ stay _ .

The little kid points at his face.

“Here! The bad man cut me.” He says and Benn blinks, that’s not what he expected.

“He didn’t hit you anywhere?” He asks.

“Just the head.”

“Why are you asking that? Is he alright?” The taller one asks him with intense eyes looking at Benn, cataloging every reaction.

“I noticed his mouth was.. Stained red, so I was asking in case of internal bleeding, but if he didn’t hit you, then that’s likely not the case” Benn says, and the taller one nods mutely.

“Don’t worry! It’s not my blood! Shishishi!” The little kid says and laughs, and Benn qualms down his surprise because that’s… not what he expected to hear from a child.

“Right.” He replies, checking over the kids face when he spots what looks like a concealed cut beneath the kids eye. 

He reaches out to hold the kid’s head closer for better inspection, he hears the other one growl but he ignores it. 

“It looks like you’re gonna need stitches” He says, and the kid blinks up at him warily.

“What’s that?” He asks and Benn pulls his hand back. 

“When you get hurt, by a cut like this for example, and it’s deep, we stitch them together with a special thread to help it heal.” 

“Where do we get some?” The taller one asks.

Shanks pipes up.

“You two can come back to my place with me. There I’ll let you use the shower, and Benn can patch up your friend to make sure he heals safely.”

The kid has tensed up, the smaller one is looking at Shanks curiously.

“As if-!”

“Okay!” The little one pipes up and interrupts the other one.

“Luffy! Are you stupid? They might separate us, and if they do that I can’t protect you!” The taller one says, the smaller one, Luffy, hasn’t stopped looking at Shanks.

“It’s alright. They’re good people, they just want to help” 

The tall one pauses and glares at them before glancing back at Luffy.

“On one condition.” 

“Which is?”

“We get to bring our weapons, and Luffy doesn’t leave my sights.” 

“That’s two conditions, Ace” Luffy says.

“Shut up!” The taller one, Ace, retorts back.

Shanks and Benn both stand back up.

“Deal.” 

***

The drive back was a tense one, Luffy getting increasingly sleepy and leaning on Ace, and Benn telling Ace to Not let Luffy fall asleep had the kid trying to keep his friend awake by distracting him with fairytales, but the confusion and apprehension in his eyes every time he’d look up from the backseat and at Benn or Shanks made Shanks speed on the road a little. 

As soon as they arrived, Shanks showed them the bathroom where his tub and shower resided. Ace didn’t even shut the door, he just pulled off their dirty clothes, throwing them wherever, and kept talking to Luffy as they got under the spray of probably coldish water. 

Shanks went back to the living room to see Benn setting up the first aid kit, some blankets and some towels from the kitchen. Not saying anything, Shanks went back to the bathroom where Ace was very hastily washing his friends hair, and gathered their clothes. He’d have to burn it, he’s pretty sure. 

He wondered if Makino had something for them to wear? Or maybe Izou had something. 

He decided to go with some of his very old t-shirts for now that definitely wouldn’t fit, but it’s better than nothing.

He notes that one of them wasn't wearing shoes, and he wonders what happened to the kids for them to be outside in that state. 

He’s walking back towards the living room when Ace comes running out of the bathroom with Luffy in his arms, he’s looking at Benn frantically.

“I can’t keep him awake!! What’s happening to him, is he dying?!?” He says, sounding borderline hysterical.

Benn takes Luffy from his arms, and reaches for a towell, he dries the boy's face, which has started bleeding again.

Ace is staring at him, shaking slightly in his shoulders, Shanks wants to hug the boy, but he’s pretty sure if he did that he’d claw out his eyes. 

“He’s not dying, but it’s likely the adrenaline and the blood loss. Shanks get some juice from the fridge. Ace, hold his hand.” Benn gave out instructions, shifting so Luffy was sitting on his knee. Scrambling to comply, Ace grips Luffy’s hand, his thumb going in small circles.

“This is gonna sting a little. I’m going to clean the wound so Luffy won’t get sick from it” He tells both of them, Ace grips Luffy’s hand tighter.

He uses a wet cloth to apply pressure before cleaning it, Luffy doesn’t react much more than a few glassy eyed looks, and ten minutes later Ben stops. 

After cleaning it, he takes out a curved small needle from a clean package, and attaches the thread.

Before doing it, he rubs some numbing ointment around the wound (but carefully so it doesn’t enter the cut), he waits a couple minutes, before he pokes Luffy near it.

“Can you feel this?” He asks.

Luffy makes a sound before his glassy eyes unfocus again.

“That means no,” Ace says, more calm than when he started.

Taking his word for it, Benn starts stitching the cut closed.

It doesn’t take long, and Luffy doesn’t make any reaction to it. Ace’s eyes go back and forth between the two, likely making sure he’s not hurting him. 

When he’s done he ties the thread, applies an antibacterial cream before putting a bandaid on his face.

“How.. How is it?” Ace asks.

“He’ll be fine. It’s going to scar, and you’ll have to watch it closely for infection, but he’ll live.” Benn says and Ace’s shoulders slump in relief. 

The kid reaches out and takes Luffy’s body in his arms, before heading to the couch where they sit on the towels. Shanks comes back a second later with a glass of what looks like orange juice, the pipe and the knife the kids brought with them, though it looks like he’s cleaned them. He places the juice on the coffee table, and places their makeshift weapons besides the kids on the couch. 

“I have some shirts for you to wear, it’s not much but it’s all I could find” Shanks says and hands over the old rags.

He ignores the little flinch Ace gives when he reaches out his arm, and drops the shirts on the boys. 

Ace watches him, and doesn’t say anything as he slips into the oversized shirt, and puts the other sóne over Luffy’s head and slides his friend's arm in. 

Benn packs the first aid away, and Ace takes the juice. Shanks is pretty sure the juice was for Luffy, but it looks like he’s fallen asleep.

Ace takes a mouthful before placing it back on the table, staring warily at Shanks. When nothing happens for a few minutes, he nods, and gently wakes Luffy.

“Do you want some juice, Lu?” He hears him ask in warm tone before he reaches for the glass again.

_ Was he making sure I hadn’t put anything in it??? _

Luffy sleepily nods and accepts Ace’s help in drinking small amounts of the liquid. Benn comes back a minute after and nods at the picture, before sitting down in front of the boys.

“Now that Luffy has been treated… What are your plans now? Do you want a lift home?” 

Ace looks at Benn, before sitting the juice cup back on the table.

“What about our clothes?” He asks.

“I’m gonna have to burn them, the blood can’t come out and wearing blood stained clothes isn’t a good idea for obvious reasons” Shanks answered.

“Are we going back to the forest?” Luffy asks, almost quietly. Ace pats him and lets him lean against him.

“The forest?” Benn asks, mildly confused, and mildly concerned.

“You kids live in a forest..?” Shanks asks.

“So what of it?” Ace asks them with a glare.

“Don’t you have a home? Parents?” Shanks asks, and they both look away.

“All I have is Ace right now” Luffy says and Ace looks at him with a vulnerable look.

Luffy meets Ace’s gaze head on, and Shanks feels like they’re having a conversation between them. 

It ends when Ace looks back at Benn and sighs, Luffy smirks like he just won a battle.

Shanks ignores the glances Ace tries to sneak at the pipe and knife.

“Luffy and I have been living in a forest for about a month, we’re not really sure. We go out for food at night and sleep during the day.” He answers.

Benn and Shanks stop their curiosity and surprise, trying not to provoke the boy further.

“What about before that?”

“I was living with a woman and her friend,” Ace says.

“I lived with Law and Cora-san,” Luffy says.

“Are they your families?”

“No way.”

“No”

“Why aren’t you living there anymore?” Shanks asked.

“I’d rather stay with Luffy. I’m also pretty sure the woman and her friends might have been crazy or something, I don’t know” Ace says.

“I liked Law and Cora-san! Law taught me a bunch of stuff like where kidneys are! Cora-san was also really nice and really clumsy! But…” His smile dims.

“I also felt alone. Even though I lived with them, I wasn’t really.. A part of them? And it was lonely. Being alone hurts more than anything else” Luffy answers, a little groggily. One of Ace’s hands goes to the boy's hair and goes through it with his long nails, Luffy looks like he’s enjoying it and leans into the touch. 

Luffy looks at them, his eyes filled with uneasy and honesty. An open vulnerable honesty. Neither man can look away from him.

“Please don’t separate us again” He says, and Ace’s hand stops for a moment.

He looks at them, the guards that were starting to lower back up full throttle, and he glares, his teeth bared slightly and a rumble coming from his throat.

Shanks feels like the kid could tear his throat out with his bare teeth, his eyes are warning them to thread lighty. 

“We can’t let you just go either way, so I would say for now we don’t worry about that. How about you two get some rest, and then tomorrow or when you wake, we can discuss a plan?” Benn suggests.

Luffy nods, a small hand gripping Ace’s own hand and Ace nods as well. The boys rearrange themselves on the couch so Ace is leaning against the armrest, Luffy’s head tucked beneath his chin, pipe and knife in arms reach.

Shanks passes them some of the blankets Benn had gotten out earlier. 

***

Shanks watched as the night sky bled into morning while the smoke lazily crawled up the air.

The kids had been asleep for a few hours, but neither man had dared move too much as everytime they did Ace’s eyes would snap open and track their movements.

It was a little unnerving the way the kid reacted to them.

That was why it took him so long to finally go out back and burn off the blood stained clothes the kids had arrived in.

He hears footsteps behind him and waits for Benn to speak. 

“So. What were you thinking of doing?” His friend asks.

“I don’t think it’d be wise to separate them. I don’t know if it’s a byproduct of living in the forest or what, but the way Ace reacts to everything we do worries me. He seems very… Unsure, of how to act around us, so he’s being aggressive. The distrust isn’t helping either, and it makes me wonder what happened to make him so suspicious for his young age.” 

Shanks says honestly. 

“There’s also with their reactions to murder” Benn adds.

“Or lack of, you mean.” Shanks corrects.

“Yeah.” And he has a point. Sure, Shanks has taken lives before - with his occupation it’s a necessity sometimes. But his first times he wasn’t calm about it by any means, he was shaky and plagued with guilt, but his leader at the time greatly helped him get through it.

He owes a lot to his late mentor. 

“Do you.. Do you think we should keep them here?” Shanks asks as he turns to look at his friend.

“Do I think it’d be a good idea to raise two boys? Do I think you’re capable of that? No.” 

Shanks waits, he feels he’s not done speaking.

“But, I also think you’re not going to let any harm come to them. If it’s been a month, the police are sure to be looking for them. Not to speak of the murder that’s going to be all over the news in a few hours. Besides, you won’t be alone to help them. We could talk to Newgate and he could pull some strings and give the boys new identities. And talking to some of his men, I’m sure they’d help prepare the boys. We could teach them how to cook, do first aid and clean. And, if you talk to Makino, then she’s likely gonna want to help them as well.” 

Shanks lost some of the tense lines in his body, he already knew Benn wouldn’t have sent them away, yet it’s still a relief to hear a (somewhat) reasonable sounding plan take form.

He smiles at his friend.

“This isn’t going to be easy by any means. I hope you’re prepared.” Benn says as a final note and smirks.

“I’m always up for a challenge,” Shanks smirks back.

****

Ace wakes to the sound of pain. He nearly bolts up, but stops when the weight on his chest makes a complaint, and Ace watches as his little brother rubs his eyes. 

Looking around, they’re in an unfamiliar living room laying on a brown couch with a couple blankets covering them.

He’s not wearing any pants either, neither is Luffy, going by the feel of bare legs against his own.

Footsteps makes them look to the sound where a tall man with long dark hair enters. He doesn’t seem surprised to see them there.

“Oh you’re awake. Good timing too, it sounds like Shanks is finishing up in the kitchen.” He says and Ace blinks.

Likely seeing his look of confusion, the man continues.

“Ah right. I think we forgot to introduce ourselves last night.” He says and Ace tries to remember.

_ Last night? What happen- _

_ The blood _

_ Luffy getting stabbed _

_ The fear of separation _

It all hits him at once and he takes a sharp intake before snapping his head back to look at Luffy.

He reaches out and takes his brothers face in his, looks into those warm eyes and reassures himself that Luffy is  _ alright _ , Luffy is  _ here  _ and  _ alive-  _

“Ace?” His brother asks quietly. Ace realises he’d stopped breathing for a moment and smiles as reassuringly as possible. 

“I’m okay, Lu. How are you feeling?” 

“I’m alright, my face is itchy tho” He says and Ace laughs before ruffling his hair.

“I’m changing your bandages after breakfast and take a look.” The man says and Ace faults himself for forgetting he was there.

Just as he says that, another man with red hair steps into the room.

“It’s not much as I’m not a cook, but it’s edible.” He says and places two plates of eggs, cheese and bacon in front of them.

“I just took it off the pan so remember to blow on it” 

“I heard back from Newgate, he’s willing to help” The dark haired man says and redhair smiles. 

“Fantastic! We’ll give him a call later, then” he says.

Ace reaches out for his own plate, they hadn’t done anything bad to them so far, they hadn’t punished them for being rude or loud, so he thinks maybe it’s okay to relax a little.

It helps that Luffy likes and trusts them. 

“So, boys. Benn and I have come up with a plan of action, but we wanted to talk to you about it first” The red haired man says. The dark haired man, who Ace assumes is Benn, nods.

“Why are you helping us?” Ace can’t help but ask. He doesn’t understand them.

The man looks at him with a soft, and a little sad, smile.

“The way you’ve been looking out for Luffy has me thinking of my old mentor. You remind me of him and all that he helped teach me. If you want, we can be friends, and friends always help each other!” He finishes off with a smile.

Ace stares at the man in disbelief. There’s no way he’d just help them for such a reason, especially not after he finds out how much trouble Ace himself is.

“We’ll accept your help on one condition. This one is important.” He starts, and Benn and the man look at him, they look like they’re contemplating what Ace’ll say.

They nod.

“No matter what happens, you won’t betray Luffy’s trust in you. You can do whatever with me, but not him. If you promise that he’ll be safe, then I’ll listen and endure any punishment you’ll have.” He says.

Their eyes widen slightly, as if that’s not what they’d expected at all. They share a worried glance before meeting Ace’s gaze. Ace won’t look away till he has their word, and if it comes to it, he has the pipe in arms reach.

“Ace.. Why do you think we’re going to punish you?” Red hair man asks him, and Ace blinks.

“It’s normal to punish someone if you do wrong.” Ace tells them. Thinking it’s a little weird that they don’t know something as basic as that, are these men really as trustworthy as Luffy says?

“Well that depends. Why, are you gonna do something wrong?” Benn says. 

Ace doesn’t know what to answer, because he’s never really understood what he himself did wrong all those times. 

“I always do” He ends up saying, because it’s all he knows.

The men share another worried look before they look back at Ace. Luffy clutches his hand. His brother has always been intuitive somehow, despite being so young, and whatever mood the adults are in are rubbing Luffy wrong.

“The woman you lived with, did she punish you?” Benn asks. 

“When I did wrong yes”

“What did you do wrong?” 

Ace looks away, head lowering slightly in shame.

“I.. I don’t know.” He says. 

Luffy’s hand tightens.

“If you don’t mind, can you tell me about the punishments or reprimands?”

Ace’s head flies up to look at him.

“You’re not gonna punish Luffy” He says, and there’s a note of finality in it.

“You’re right, I’m not. I’m not going to punish you either.” He says.

“Liar. If you’re not, then what is it? You gonna test my reaction?” Ace says. He doesn’t know where to place these two and he doesn’t like it. Neither has reacted like any other adult he knows.

_ But neither did mom or Rayleigh, maybe Iyasu and the others were the ones who were doing wrong?  _

Ace shudders and wills the thought to die. These men are the different ones, not the others.

_ Yes, they’re different, but they’re not bad _

He ignores that thought, too.

“No, I’m asking because I’m worried. You don’t have to tell me anything if you don’t mind, but it would help me to be more mindful.” Benn says.

Ace searches his eyes, there’s no mirth, no  _ ‘trust me _ ’, just honesty and calm.

Maybe he can. Maybe he should. The man, or men, don’t seem like they want to hurt him. Maybe they’re friendly. 

_ That’s what you thought of the nurse at first, too. _

He has the pipe. Luffy has a knife. They can get away, they can defend themselves - they already beat two older men. 

“Iyasu didn’t punish me, mostly it was Ronnie or Manny. Ronnie would throw me into my room and lock the door. He would leave me in there, if I was quiet, for about a day. Longer if I were too loud. When Ronnie left and Manny started staying there, he didn’t know about the lightswitch or the lock on the door. When he found out from Iyasu they’d lock me inside during the nights in case I would get out and hurt them.” Ace tells them. He can’t meet their eyes. Why is he scared? It’s fine, it was nothing, it was everyday stuff. 

“What did you do for him to do that?” Benn asks.

“Depends. Mostly he thought I was too loud. He, Iyasu and I would spend the day doing family stuff in the living room, but I wasn’t allowed to really move, my place was to sit still and not make a sound.” 

“Did both Ronnie and Manny do this?” 

“Just Ronnie.” 

“Did Manny punish you?”

“Not directly I guess. On days where I’d done something wrong Iyasu would put crushed up sleeping pills in my food. If I didn’t eat it then she would make Manny carry me to my room.”

“Where did she get the sleeping pills from?” 

“I thought they were Manny’s, he had a lot of pills. But Sandra told me the mental ward prescribed them for me.” 

“Who is Sandra?”

“She’s Manny’s daughter”

“And did she live with you?”

“No, Manny and Iyasu had kicked her out for arguing with them. Of course she still visited often, but usually they’d still end up shouting at each other.” 

“You mentioned a mental ward? Do you have any problems we need to be considerate of?”

“I don’t know”

“Why were you there?”

“Because Iyasu thinks I’m sick” 

“Sick?”

“Yeah”

“How so?”

“She told them I thought I was a wolf and that I was hearing voices. She was afraid to sleep with me in the house, that I was violent and that whenever she tried to tell me something I would attack her.” 

“And did you?”

“No. I don’t know why she thinks that, she’s been saying stuff like that for years.” 

At some point Luffy started to cry, the quiet sniffles catching Ace’s attention, he opened his arms to let his brother hug him, his nails carefully going through the short dark locks.

That usually calms his brother, but as the conversation went on, Luffy’s sniffles became sobs. Ace stops talking to tighten his arm around his brother's midriff, whispering sweet words of calm into his ear.

“Ssh, shh, you’re fine, it’s all going to be okay” 

Luffy pulls his face back slightly to look at him, and Ace’s hands carefully dries the tears, mindful of his long nails.

Luffy doesn’t look sad though, no, he looks angry. Ace wonders if he did something wrong. 

“Luffy?”

“I want to beat them up!! How could they do all that to Ace???”

Ace’s eyes widen - _ wha? _

“Luffy-”

“No! You’re the best Ace! You’re kind and always willing to play with me! You’re not sick, you’re not bad!! She’s a liar! She never deserved to know you, let alone meet you!!” His brother yells at him, the angry tears gathering at his eyes again.

Ace is shocked. He’s.. He’s gotten so used to being wrong, being a problem- so  _ why _ ?

_ Why does his words make me happy, and angry at the same time? _

“Luffy’s right, kid.” Benn says and Ace and Luffy both look at him.

“Of course I’m right!” Luffy says.

“What she did… You’re not in the wrong here, she is. I Can promise you, both of you, that I would never let anyone do anything like that to you. If you do wrong, we talk about it so you can learn.” The red haired man says and Ace feels his own eyes start to wet, why is he feeling this way? 

Ignoring his own sniffles, he nods, but doesn’t meet their eyes. Luffy hugs him. 

“So.. what is your plan?” Ace asks, hoping they’ll let him change the subject.

“We have a friend of ours who’d be willing to give you boys new identities. Since the police are likely already looking for you, you can’t really go out much. So if you want, you can stay here, and us and our friends will look after you. And then, when both of you have turned 18 and are legal adults, you can leave. But we can talk more about that at that time.”

Red hair finishes.

“How old are you two?” Benn asks them. __

“I’m 11! Ace is two years and a couple months older than me, so he’s 13!” Luffy says. 

“So what do you think Lu? You want to stay here with Benn and…” He pauses, looking at redhair.

“Shanks” 

“And Shanks?” 

“Yes! They’re good people, and they won't separate us like the ccp did!” 

“CCP?” All three ask.

“Do you mean CPS?” Benn asks.

“Yes, that!” Luffy says.

Benn blinks and Shanks looks at them with a raised brow.

“You’ve been involved with child protective services?” Benn asks.

Ace doesn’t like to think of that time. 

“There.. Was an accident. Some years ago. They came to pick up Luffy and I and drove us to the hospital. There the lady told me that Luffy and Sabo would be happy if I let them take them. And if it was a choice between their and my happiness, I would always chose them” 

Luffy’s smile drops and looks down, still sitting in Ace’s lap, he takes his brother's hand.

“I hope Sabo is okay..” He says and Ace realises they didn’t tell Luffy anything about his condition. He also realises this meant Sabo hadn’t had any contact with Luffy.

“They told me he’d be fine. When was the last time you talked with him?” Ace asks.

“That morning when mom asked you to watch me, and Sabo asked if he should get me those gummy bears I like,” Luffy says and grips Ace’s hand tighter.

Ace knows Luffy has a horrible memory, the boy barely remembers his own name sometimes.

For him to remember so clearly… It must bother him. A lot. Ace wonders how much his brother has been thinking of it.

“Who’s Sabo?” Shanks asks.

“He’s my twin brother” Ace tells them, they share somber nods.

“So you’re brothers, then?” 

“Yeah, Luffy is the youngest. I’m the oldest” Ace says. 

“You’re twins”

“Yes but I’m taller” 

Luffy giggles at him.

“Okay, last thing I want to ask.” Benn says and they look back at him.

“What happened last night?” The somewhat calm atmosphere shatters, Ace doesn’t want to talk about how he almost lost his brother.

Luffy takes the decision for him.

“We were on our way to get food, and usually to get there we have to walk through this long tunnel thingy. We were almost there when Ace started to pull me towards the trash but it smells and hurts my nose so I didn’t wanna go near it. I didn’t realise it was because he’d heard something that he wanted us to go there, and then suddenly there were those two adults in front of us. Ace put me behind him and one of them said he was cute and started pulling him by the hair so I jumped at him and bit him till he let go of him. I saw Ace roll away and I was so happy that he’d be fine, but then the other man came over and swung his knife at me, it hurt and scared me so I let go. Ace tho came at the man who hurt me and swung down the pipe, he dropped his knife. The other man who has holding his bleeding arm noticed at some point that Ace had defended me and was making his way towards him, but Ace didn’t see him so I took the knife by my feet and went for the kidney till he stilled and couldn’t hurt him” 

Luffy tells them, and Ace watches their reactions. 

This is a test, if they react badly, then they’re out of here. 

_ You sound like the nurses _

He bites down on the thought. This is for Luffy’s sake. 

“Woah kid, why the kidney?” Shanks asks, Ace can’t detect any harm in his tone, just curiosity.

“Because Law once said to go after the kidney, lifer or knee” Luffy smiles at them.

“Lifer?” Benn asks. 

“Yeah!! Law said it works like a strainer and is good for the body!”

“Do you mean lever?” 

“Yes, that!” Benn smiles at his brother's antics, and Ace is perplexed. 

He was so sure they'd react at least in  _ some  _ way.

_ They hurt people, why aren’t they reacting?  _

“Do you promise?” Ace asks them. He hasn’t forgotten and they haven’t promised yet.

“Promise?”

“To never betray Luffy.” 

Shanks blinks, Ace guesses he forgot about that.

“I’d never betray a friend, kid.”

“Even knowing what we did to those men?”

Shanks frowns.

“They had it coming, bunch’a scumbags” Benn slaps his friend's knee and Luffy laughs. Ace just stares.

“Well?” But he needs their word.

“Yeah kid, I promise. I’ll never betray your or Luffy’s trust.” Shanks says, Benn nods.

“I promise, too.” He says and Ace finally,  _ finally  _ lets himself relax. 

“If you both agree to the plan, then I’m gonna call Newgate and let him know to proceed.” 

Benn says and stands up to leave the room.

Shanks nods at his friend.

“Okay, since you’ll be staying here indefinitely you’ll have to know some basic stuff. I won’t be around much as I’m very busy with work, but there’ll be someone here to look after you and should you need help, you can count on them. Another thing, if you for some reason do get caught by the police, do Not tell them anything about me, or any of my friends you’ll meet with the exception of Makino.” Shanks tells them seriously. They both nod.

Ace thinks it’s a bit weird, but he’s not going to question it. 

“Great. Welcome to my humble abode, Ace, Luffy!” Shanks says and smiles widely at them. 

“I have a room you can use upstairs. There’s only one bed in there, but we’ll find another in no time. I hope you don’t mind sharing? If it at any point becomes a problem let me know and we’ll figure something out. My room is at the end of the hall, if I’m in there and either of you need me, you can always knock at the door.” 

“Thanks!” Luffy says, and Ace realises right, he should probably thank them too.

“Yeah...Thank you.” 

Looking at Luffy, he thinks that maybe, just maybe.

They’ll be alright.


	7. Meeting new friends.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys meet some new people willing to help.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings:
> 
> ^^^= Larger timeskip  
> *** = Smaller timeskip

The first to meet the two boys is Makino.

Shanks had told her the day before when he’d swung by her place and asked if she had any old t-shirts and shorts she could spare, and if she had two spare toothbrushes. 

She at first thought this was a weird way to ask her to move in, even though she’d refused already before. 

Imagine her surprise when he told her he’d taken in two kids, one who he’s suspecting to be a victim of abuse, the other lonely. 

He told her about them, Ace and Luffy were their names, but he wouldn’t say how he found them, so she figures she didn’t want to know. 

Shanks was good at not telling her things she didn’t want to know. 

She promised to swing by later after her shifts ended, but it ended up being postponed to the next day.

Before showing up she’d gone a little ham at the nearest goodwill and gotten some clothes that she hoped would fit the boys, if not she’d return it and get something else. Two toothbrushes, some extra towels, a hair brush, some soap, two notebooks and some writing utensils. 

She figured that’d be enough for now and, bags in hand and arms, she knocked on Shanks’s door.

He opened the door and smiled at her, blinking at all her bags he laughed and reached out to take some of them. She let him.

“Makino, hey! I see you’ve brought the entire store with you?” He said tauntingly and she smirks.

  
“Why of course! I know you’d never think of everything they’d need, so I put the task on myself. If the clothes don't fit then I’ll take it back with me” She replied, teasing him in return.

Armed with the bag of clothes, she steps into the living room. Behind the couch is a head of dark hair and, badly hidden, big curious brown eyes. She smiles kindly and sits down on a nearby stool, putting the back by her feet.

“And here I thought Shanks mentioned there’d be kids, but no one’s here. Guess I’m at the wrong place” She says, intentionally avoiding looking at the couch.

She hears some giggles and shushing, and fights the grin threatening to break out on her face.

“Guess I’ll try another house later then” She says, and two minutes later a small kid with a bandaged face walks out from behind the couch. He’s wearing a long t-shirt that’s definitely one of Shanks’s old ones, and he’s smiling at her. 

She smiles back at him.

“So there is someone here! I didn’t think so. Hi there, who are you?” She asks kindly.

The kid's face breaks into a large toothed grin and he walks over to stand before her.

“I’m Luffy! Who are you?” He asks, staring up at her, what a curious child.

“I’m Makino. It’s nice to meet you, Luffy” Luffy cocks his head.

“Are you one of Shanks’s friends?”

She giggles.

“I am” 

“I see! You’re a good person, I like you!” He says, and at that, another kid walks out from behind the couch. Makino assumes that’s Ace, he’s taller than Luffy with long filtered hair that looks like it hasn’t seen a hairbrush in, well, ever really. His eyes are distrustful and scanning over her, looking for any reason he should pull Luffy away from her, and it makes her heart heavy with regret and anger. How she wishes she could have a word with those people who hurt the boy, he seems like a good kid.

“Hi there” She says and his eyes flash to hers. He’s searching her eyes, but she doesn’t know what for.

Whatever it is, it doesn’t look like he’s found it, and the tenseness in his shoulders relax a bit.

“Why are you here?” He asks, stepping up behind Luffy.

She’s a little taken back, but she smiles nonetheless.

“I came to meet you two. And because I wanted to see how you were” 

“You know who we are?” He asks. That distrust is back full-force.

“No. I knew Shanks found you two, but not how or why. I also knew your names, but as I haven’t met you, I didn’t assume to know you.” She says honestly. Ace’s eyes are searching again.

“Okay” He says and she smiles what she hopes is a reassuring smile.

“Say Ace, when was the last time someone brushed your hair?”

Ace blinks, he looks unsure. 

“Uh, a while ago” 

“Why haven’t you brushed it?”

“I didn’t think of it. Why should I?”

“Doesn’t it hurt to have it all tangled up?”

“I’m used to it” 

She doesn’t like that. She hums.

“Would you let me brush it?” She asks. 

“Why?”

“Because it’s not good to have it tangled.”

Luffy looks back at him and then at her.

“Is Ace hurt?”

“No, but he could be.”

“Ace let her brush your hair!” 

“What, why!?” 

“Because I don’t want you to hurt!!” 

She watches as Luffy stomps a foot, staring with what she’d describe as puppy dog eyes at Ace, who’s looking very uncomfortable under his stare.

He looks at her, gaze searching again, and back at Luffy,

“Fine” He relents, and Luffy jumps to gather his brother in a hug.

“You two get settled on the couch, I’ll be right back” She says and watches Luffy pull Ace. 

She goes to grab the conditioner, a bowl, some towels and the hairbrush she brought. Returning to the living room, she sets her things on the coffee table and walks behind Ace, Luffy is splayed across his lap like a dog, Ace’s nails, which she notes are Very long, gently cascading through his hair and down his back. From the content look on both boys’s faces, she figures this is a common act.

“I’m going to put this towell on your shoulders, and wet your hair with my hands before applying the conditioner. If you get uncomfortable, or it hurts, at any point, let me know” She tells him before starting. He grunts to let her know he heard.

She wets her hands and cups some of the water from the bowl. She gently leans Ace’s head back and drops the water on his hair. Getting all strands thoroughly wet, she uncaps the conditioner. It’s peppermint-candy cane scented, one of her personal favourites.

She brought a couple different scented soaps, in case there’s a scent they’d prefer.

She distributes the conditioner in the tangled hair, her fingers massaging it in carefully. Reaching for the brush, she starts to comb the hair, one part at a time. 

Ace sits still and lets her work. 

Even at the extreme tangled parts, he makes no noise of complaint, and soon she’s finished, letting the brush run smoothly through his long dark hair. She reaches for the bowl and washes his hair, getting the conditioner out. 

“I’m going to dry your hair with the towel, and then I’m going to brush it again” She tells him, carefully prying the fluffy towel from the boy’s shoulders, careful not to spook him.

He doesn’t react and lets her dry and brush his hair.

“There, all done!” 

He turns to look at her.

“Thanks” 

“Ace, would you let me cut your nails for you?” She asks and his eyes widen with unease. 

“Why?”

“Long nails can trap dirt and bacteria under them. It could make you, or Luffy, sick.” She says and his eyes dart down to the boy who looks to have fallen asleep, still laying on him. It looks like that thought never occurred to him.

“Okay” He says, not taking his eyes off his brother.

Makino gets a pair of Shanks’s nail clippers, and a trash can, from his bathroom. She sits in front of Ace, and takes his unclothed feet, trying not to let the at contact flinch bother her. 

The skin on his feet is extremely thick and littered with small barely visible scars and burns, she wonders how often he walks without shoes.

She gently clips his toenails, all of which are extremely long. 

After she holds out a hand to place his own hand in, and likewise with his toenails, she positions it above the trashcan and cuts his fingernails. He flinches whenever the clippers get to the base of the finger, and almost looks like he’s going to retrieve his hand, but one look at Luffy and he stops himself. 

“All done. Good job, Ace. Thank you for letting me do that” She says and he retracts his hands.

“Why are you thanking me?” He asks and this close she can see how yellow his teeth are and how red his gums are. 

“Because you went out of your comfort zone to do this. I want you to brush your hair everyday, once when you wake up and once when you go to bed. Do you think you could do that?” 

“Why?”

“Because it’d be good for you.” She can see he wants to keep arguing, but she sees he stops. She figures it’s because his reasonings are too open for her to know. 

“Promise me you’ll do it? And, if you can, make Luffy do it too?” She asks.

He looks down at his brother, likely replaying Luffy’s earlier conviction to have Ace get his hair brushed in his head.

“Okay” He says and she smiles.

“What about brushing your teeth?”

He looks back at her.

“What?”

“Brushing your teeth. When was the last time you did that?” She asks.

“I don’t know. The last time they were brushed was when Sandra did it.”

Makino cocks her head.

“What do you mean?”

He looks away from her.

“Sandra and Iyasu had been arguing. Sandra pulled me into the bathroom, held my chin and brushed my teeth. Iyasu had Manny pull her away though when I started to bleed heavily. It hurt.” 

“Did no one make sure your teeth were taken care of?” Makino asks, trying to quell her rising anger at those.. People.

“No. Iyasu didn’t care what I did, and when I wasn’t in the room I was outside. Only one who told me to do it was Sandra, but Iyasu would kick her out every time saying she was the mother and she knew best.” 

Makino’s eyes glisten, she wants to hug Ace but she’s pretty sure he wouldn’t appreciate that. 

God she can’t imagine growing up in a place where no one cares about what you do or even bothers to teach you to take care of yourself. 

“I see. Well, I have some toothbrushes with me, and I want you both to brush your teeth everyday. Once after breakfast, and once before bed. Think you can do that?” She asks and Ace looks up at her.

“I don’t know, it’s hard to remember something like that” he says, and she hears it, the underlying ‘ _ it’s hard to care enough about myself to remember _ ’- he doesn’t have to say it for her to hear. Her heart clenches. 

“That’s alright, I’ll help you. How about we get two pieces of paper, and on those pieces we write down to brush your teeth, your hair, to shower and put on clean clothes. We’ll get you stickers, and once you finish it, you add a sticker to signal you’ve done it for the day. That’ll serve as reminders for the two of you. I will also ask once in a while and help you keep up routine - does that sound alright?” She says with a smile, and Ace looks at her with that searching gaze again, his face unreadable.

“Why..Why would you help me?” He asks her and she thinks she might hear the sound of her heart breaking in her chest.

“Why wouldn’t I?” She asks back.

“I’ve done bad things.” He says, but what she hears is ‘’ _ I don’t deserve it _ ’’ 

“Most people have. Good people can do ‘’bad’’ things and improve from it. Mistakes are natural, and we can’t grow as a person without them, we can’t figure out what’s okay and what isn’t without them. “ 

“You really think that?”

“I do. This counts for everyone. Just as good people can do bad, bad people can do good. Nothing in this world is absolute, there’s always circumstance” She tells him, she truly believes it to be true. 

Ace’s eyes search her, but he doesn’t look angry or cold or blank - he looks vulnerable. 

He nods, seemingly accepting it. 

“How about waking Luffy up for a moment? I brought you two some clothes that I’d like you to try” She says, and Luffy rises from his position on his brother's lap.

“I’m awake” He says and Makino laughs a short laugh. He’s a cute kid, they both are. She can tell they’re good boys.

“Alright, let me get my bags, you two line up.” She goes to the stool and grabs the bags she sat down. 

She turns both upside down on the carpeted floor, grabbing a pair of boxers for each boy for them to wear, she’d bet they’re not wearing anything beneath the oversized shirts.

“For starters, you can put these on. I guessed your sizes, so let me know if they don’t fit” She throws the underwear at them before arranging the stacks of clothes. 

By the end of it, she has a pile with shirts, patns, socks and undergarments for Luffy, and a likewise pile for Ace. 

Standing up, she looks at the boys who've both stepped out of the shirt, the boxers seem to fit alright.

“Okay Luffy could you stand in front of this row? Ace you’re in front of this one” She directs them to each their own clothes piles, Luffy is smiling and looking at the rows with open curiosity. Ace isn’t meeting her eyes, and his face is slightly red - he’s embarrassed. 

They spend the next hour trying on the different clothes, and in the end most of it fits with a few pants being too long, but she decides they should keep them for Luffy’s growth spurt in the future. The boys, now with Luffy wearing a white t-shirt with an anchor on it, blue shorts and red socks and Ace, wearing an orange and white tank-top with a black dragon on it, grey shorts and black socks, both look at her as she puts the chosen clothes in two bags, one that’ll be Ace’s and one that’ll be Luffy’s.

“By the way. I brought some other stuff for you-” She starts and Ace exclaims “There’s more?!?”, Luffy stares at her in wonder and she giggles before continuing.

“Yes, Ace, there’s more.I brought you some notebooks and pencils. I work two jobs, but have most noons free. I want to save up so I can become a teacher, and some practice would be nice. Would you boys let me homeschool you?” She asks and watches them. Luffy’s grin couldn’t possibly be wider, and Ace’s disbelief is blatantly showing.

“You’d really do that?” He asks.

“Of course, or I wouldn’t have offered.” Luffy, dropping his bag, catapults at her and hugs her, Ace blinks at her like he can’t even begin to comprehend her actions, and she realises with a lot of his upbringing that that is likely the case.

“Then… If you don’t mind.. You can teach us. It could be useful. In the future.” He says, not meeting her eyes again, but she sees his cheeks redden and she smiles. 

“Thank you” She says and, setting Luffy down, she opens her arms. She won’t hug him, not without permission. She gives him the choice. 

He blinks at her, and slowly, steps into her embrace and lifts his own arms. She very carefully let’s her arms go around him, and feels the tenseness bleed out of his shoulders. 

Finally, he lets go, and she lets her arms fall and stands back up.

“Thank you,” He says.

Yes, they’re definitely good boys she decides.

***

The next people to meet the boys are Newgate, Marco and Izou. 

It was late midday. Ace, Luffy and Benn, who’d come to see how they were doing, were all sitting in the living room. Benn was going over some ‘’secret’’ paperwork, as he’d called it, and the boys were working on their first homework assignment from Makino. 

Or well, Ace was working and Luffy was waiting for his brother to finish so he could help him.

A knock on the door made Benn look up and Ace tense. 

Setting down his papers, the man got up to answer the door. Luffy, curious as ever, right behind him. Ace sighed and got up as well to keep tabs on his brother.

Opening the door, they came face to face with the tallest man Luffy has ever seen. 

Ace, immediately ready to run, grabbed Luffy who protested and attempted to get him behind him. Benn opened the door to let the man in.

“Beckman, good to see you.” The man said and Benn nodded at him. Luffy saw there were two people following him in. 

One of them was very tall too, still not as tall as the giant moustache man though. They were wearing a long purple coat with jeans and a ruffled button up, their long black hair pulled into a braided bun. Besides them was a man who was looking… very tired, and who was wearing a blue button up and jeans. His hair made Luffy stare, the man caught his eyes with a lazy, if not slightly confused gaze. Luffy could not for the life of him remember what his hair reminded him off.

Staring even harder, the man’s confusion became more apparent, and Luffy realises Ace must have seen him stare. His brother had tensed up and Luffy swore he could hear the beginnings of a growl.

That’s when it hit him.

“Ah. A pineapple!” He yells, pointing at the man who splutters in shock. Luffy guesses he might have interrupted something because it’s dead quiet, and Ace is staring at him with a look that’s radiating exasperation as well as confusion. 

The silence lasts a while, he’s not sure if it’s 10 seconds or 5 minutes, but it’s cut off when a gruff booming laughter fills the space, slowly followed by more laughter coming from the other two that came with pineapple guy.

“Shut up!” Pineapple guy goes. The yelling makes Ace flinch, and Luffy finds and grips his brother’s hand. He’s not sure why Ace flinches at loud noises so often. 

“Gurara. Sorry, son. But you gotta admit, kid’s one gutsy brat isn’t he?” The giant moustache man says, and Luffy meets his eyes.

“Anyways, as I was saying.” He stops and pulls out two white envelopes.

“There are the boys' new identities.” Ace and Luffy both look at Benn, who opens one of the envelopes and looks over the files.

“Thanks Newgate. This’ll make their lives easier in the long run” He says, and the giant moustache man smiles.

“I see why Akagami decided to help them.They do give off the same feel like that old fool did” He smiles fondly, Benn nods.

“Hey, Giant moustache man, are those your friends or Shanks’s friends?” Luffy asks and ignores Ace’s whispered  _ Luffy _ !!, his eyes not leaving the giant.

“Those are my men, kid. You’re gonna’ be seeing them again no doubt, so I brought them since they didn’t have anything better to do” He answers and Luffy nods. 

At that, the men in question walks up to him.

It’s the purple coated one that greets them first, crouching down to be at Luffy’s eye-level.

“Hello. My name’s Izou, and I’m a member of the whitebeards. Some of my oath brothers and I are goin’ to be visiting now and then to help teach you two essentials. I’m going to help with the cleaning, and teach you how to sow just in case.” Luffy studies the person's face, they’re wearing makeup, like Cora-san would sometimes, and have really pretty eyes.

“Are you a boy or a girl?” He asks. 

“I’m a man. I enjoy wearing feminine clothes and makeup.” He says and Luffy nods.

“Alright. You’re really pretty” Because he is. 

Mr.Pretty’s eyes widen a little at that and a smile breaks out on his face.

“My aren’t you charming? Thank you” He says before standing back up, making room for Mr.Pineapple. 

The other man doesn’t bother crouching down but he does now his head at them.

“My name is Marco, also a member of the whitebeards. I’m also going to teach you how to clean, as well as first aid. You’ll likely meet one of my oath brothers soon, his name is Thatch. He’s going to teach you basic cooking.” Mr.Pineapple says and Luffy nods and smiles at him.

“Well we only came to deliver that and to meet the younglings, so we’ll take our leave.” Mr.Moustache says, Luffy waves at them.

“Bye Mr.Moustache, bye Mr.Pretty, bye Mr.Pineapple!” With a big smile, he’s excited to see them again. 

The door clicks shut, and Luffy looks at his brother who’s blinking as if trying to discern if this is a fever dream, or if that actually happened.

“Okay. You two, these files are your new identities. Which means should you be questioned by anyone, you tell them your names are Monkey D.Luffy, and Monkey. D. Ace. Your old files have been tampered with, so fingerprints don't match yours, and any pictures available are gone now, too. “ Benn says and they both listen. 

Or well, Luffy’s sure Ace does.


	8. Affection

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luffy learns what kisses are.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings:
> 
> ^^^ = Larger timeskip  
> *** = Smaller timeskip

***

They’d been living with Shanks for a couple months now. The man who took them in is, surprisingly, easy to get along with. He works a ‘’mystery’’ job (As Luffy has named it) and is sometimes gone for a couple days, but he always comes back with a smile and a tale to tell.

Izou, Marco, Thatch (Or Mr.Bighair) and Makino visit them often though, especially Makino.

She comes by most days of the week and stays the afternoon teaching them different stuff, bringing books with her for each of them. She’s also been helping Ace keep up a self-care routine, which Luffy appreciates, it helps that he does it too.

In the last couple weeks Makino has been hanging out with them on the evenings Shanks isn’t there, though she’s also there even if he is. Today she and Luffy are watching a movie in the living room, since Ace is on dinner duty and going over the instructions that Thatch has given him. 

Luffy would probably have enjoyed the movie a lot more, if he had paid attention to most of it, but he got distracted by the sizzling sounds of meat in a frying pan, so now he’s not sure what’s going on.

Makino is knitting something besides him. Luffy’s thinking over how drastically different his life has gotten over the months, and he’s.. So happy. This house is so warm. Whenever Mr.Pretty comes and gives them house cleaning lessons or sewing lessons, he always brings some candy and some colouring books for Luffy to play with. His personality is graceful but warm.

When Mr.Pineapple comes and talks about first aid with them, he makes sure they understand and doesn’t mind repeating himself or answering his questions. 

He also really likes Mr.Bighair, who’s food is super yummy! But he’s also super funny! Luffy enjoys their company. He’s so happy to be here.

Focusing back on the screen, the leads are talking about something (whispering?) but Luffy doesn’t really get it. 

They lean towards each other and - ??!?? 

Luffy blanches.  _ What kind of movie is this??????? _

Reaching out to grab Makino’s sleeve, he scooches closer to her. 

Noticing his uneasy, she stops knitting and looks at him with concern in her eyes.

“What’s wrong?” She asks, all kindly and caring.

“Why are they eating each other, Makinio?! Are they starving??? No Meat?????” He asks, because that’s his worst nightmare. 

She blinks a couple a time before looking back to the screen, back to him, and she laughs a soft laugh.

“Oh Luffy. They’re not eating each other” She says, smile gracing her lips and not leaving.

He pauses. Blinking, he turns to look at the screen, they’re still aggressively mouthing at each other. He doesn’t understand.

“If they’re not eating each other then what are they doing?” He asks.

She resumes her knitting, but she knows she still has his attention.

“It’s called kissing.” She tells him.

“Kissing? What’s that mean?” 

She hums a quiet hum.

“It’s a gesture you show people you care about. You can kiss them on the cheek, nose, hand and forehead. And people you really really care about you kiss on the lips.” She says with a smile, and Luffy thinks he gets it.

“So it’s like hugging?” He asks.

“That’s right.” 

Nodding, Luffy decides to kiss everyone he cares about so they’re sure to know how much he likes them!. 

From then on, he’d kiss Makino and Shanks on the cheek whenever they left the house or when they got back. It took him a couple weeks, but he started to kiss Benn, Izou, Marco and Thatch too.

He knew his brother was wondering what he was doing, even if he didn’t say anything. But Luffy could  _ Feel  _ his curiosity, and thus he waited for Ace to ask.

It took his brother a month to stop being stubborn. Luffy enjoyed it, knowing something Ace didn’t, and he didn’t want to spoil it until he came to him. 

He’d just kissed Shanks goodbye, he was leaving on another job and would be back in a few days. Luffy walked to the living room, since he still had to review the homework Ace had helped him with, when he heard his brother speak up.

“You know you can talk to me about anything right, Lu..?” He starts.

Luffy turns to face him, his brother looks worried.

“Of course? What’s up!” 

“Is.. Is there a reason why you’ve been biting people’s faces? They.. They haven’t hurt you or punished you?” Ace asks and walks closer to put his hands on Luffy’s shoulders.

Luffy blinks, he didn’t tell Ace so he could know something he didn’t know, but he didn’t want to make his brother worried. 

“I’m not biting them, it’s called kissing” Ace cocks his head in confusion.

“Kissing?”

“Yeah! Kissing is like hugging, you show people you care! You can kiss people on their cheeks, hands, nose and forehead! And if you really really care, you kiss them on the lips!” He recites the words Makino taught him. He’s proud of himself, he remembers. 

“Oh” Ace says and Luffy snickers, before standing on the tip of his toes, and using Ace’s own shoulders to hoist himself up, and kisses Ace on the forehead.

Stepping back, he sees his brother raise his hand to the place Luffy kissed, wonder in his eyes.

“That… feels familiar. Mom used to do this when she’d say goodnight when we were younger” He says and Luffy blinks, he feels a little bad. He doesn’t remember.

Ace probably sees the guilt in his eyes and leans in to return the forehead kiss, before moving on to his nose. Luffy giggles. 

He leans in and gives his brother a quick peck on the lips. Ace looks at him, and in that moment Luffy can read it, see it in his eyes, the unconditional love and sappiness his brother feels for him. Ace’s face breaks into a huge grin, before he picks him up and attacks him with tickles.

His brother ruffles his hair before he gives him a peck of his own.

Ah, this is happiness, Luffy thinks.


	9. Ace's pants

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luffy wonders about Ace's pants.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings:  
> Talk of selfharm  
> Implied dissociation
> 
> ^^^= Larger timeskip  
> *** = Smaller timeskip

It’s been a couple of years since they started living with Shanks and everyone.

Ace was 15, and Luffy himself had been 13 for a couple months now, it was late summer so the boys mostly lounged on the couch in front of a fan. 

A lot has changed in the short time they’d been here, but if Luffy had to decide on the biggest change, he’d hands down say Ace, no question.

When they’d just arrived, Ace wouldn’t leave Luffy alone for the first few weeks. He didn’t trust anyone really, even though he tried (and Luffy could see he did) he sometimes got this look on his face that meant he wasn’t really there. Those times he would zone out for hours, and when his eyes cleared, it’d be like he was right back to square one.

His brother still flinches sometimes at the loud noises, and new years is a hell for them both. On their first new years at the house, Ace hadn’t wanted to leave the bed, he’d been laying in it all day with a blanket thrown over his head and facing the wall. Luffy would bring him food, but he’d either be too zoned out to notice, or he didn’t want to eat it. In the end, Luffy would crawl in with his brother and talk to him about the homework he was having trouble with (aka math), his brother wouldn’t reply but that was okay.

The year after was better, but when the fireworks started shooting off aplenty, Ace’d get that glassy look in his eyes before returning to the bedroom, Luffy hot on his heels. 

One thing he’d quickly learned was that his brother really didn’t like being alone in the dark, so Luffy had pushed their beds together so he was in reach at any time. Ace didn’t say it, but Luffy knew he appreciated it. 

It was around the start of the year that Ace got better. He still flinched at loud noises, but he didn’t get that glassy eyed look as often, and Luffy was looking forward to the future. 

Maybe that’s why it didn’t strike him as weird when Ace would only wear long pants.

At first he’d sleep in jeans, since Ace generally hated anything that wasn’t a pair of shorts, and Luffy, assuming his brother was cold, asked Izou if he had any old pair of leggings or joggers. Luffy would let Ace use his own pair of long pants, but Ace’s legs would likely be too long. 

Closer to the summer months, and after Izou gave Ace some new long pants, he’d sleep and wear nothing but those at all times. In fact, Luffy noticed he would tuck his pant legs into his socks. 

Which, another thing, Ace hated socks. His brother preferred to be bare feet, even in winter (and Luffy would know, cause Ace had the habit of placing ice cold feet on his back whenever they’d gone to bed.)

Luffy wondered if he should ask him, but Ace was  _ really  _ good at changing the subject.

Other than that, Ace had done a complete 180 and become a clean freak. Luffy had asked Izou for some hand cream at one point because Ace was washing his hands so much they were getting small cuts in the dry skin. His hygiene, cooking and self care had all immensely improved. Though some days he knew Ace forgot to wear new clothes or shower or brush his teeth, and Luffy could tell that during those days, Ace was ashamed and angry. Luffy didn’t understand why, and he didn’t like it.

Because of Ace’s blooming responsibility, Shanks had taken up longer shifts and would often be gone for a week or a little longer before returning for a couple days. Sometimes he’d come back hurt, and those days, if Benn wasn’t with him, Ace or Luffy would patch him up. 

Shanks had left a couple days ago. Makino would still come by often, Izou, Thatch or Marco didn’t drop by as much as they used to, which Luffy was a little sad about, but they still visited now and then and would play or hang out. 

Right now, Luffy was on dinner duty. He’d been so caught up in his thoughts, which is a rare event for him, that he’d almost burned the veggies in the pan in front of him.

They didn’t have any meat, so Luffy was making vegetable stir fry. He’d have to talk to Makino about going out for groceries, soon.

Ace and Luffy only left the house a couple times a month to go get groceries with either Makino or Benn. Sometimes Shanks if the man was there. But mostly it was Makino. And usually it was Ace and not Luffy, seeing as he was least likely to be recognized by anyone. If Luffy went, he wore a white facemask and a beanie. 

He looked at the clock on the wall, Ace had been in the bath for a long time now. Luffy wonders if he fell asleep in the bath, he tends to fall asleep wherever when he’s sleep deprived.

Cutting his musings short, Luffy adds the stir fry sauce and the rice to the pan, letting it cook for a moment before turning off the heat.

Getting two plates he sits them on the counter real quick before walking towards the bathroom where he knocks on the door a couple times.

He doesn’t get a response, so Luffy turns the doorknob, eyes directly landing on Ace’s form in the bathtub.

His brother’s head is leaning against the wall and as Luffy thought, he’s asleep. Smiling fondly at the sight, he goes to unplug the tub, watching as the soapy lukewarm water disappears down the drain. 

That’s when he sees it. 

Ace’s legs are stretched out and crossed by the ankles, so only a little of the side is visible, but what catches his attention are the lines.

Grabbing the leg, he lifts it out of the still dissipating water.

On closer inspection, Luffy’s brow furrows. 

His eyes follow the lines, they start at Ace’s hip and go down to the ankle. The lines all line up the side of his leg, and there’s plenty of them, some are scars, some are pink and few are new and angry red. 

Luffy doesn’t understand.

He’s been with Ace almost constantly, and he hasn’t seen his brother get hurt at all during their time spent together. And these don't look like they were made by falling or anything, they look like they’d been made by a sharp thin object like a cat claw or something.

Luffy lets his fingers trail over them, feeling the raised warm tan skin, the wetness doesn’t bother him and he doesn’t notice it. He feels the muscle beneath his fingertips ripple with movement. 

Looking up, he sees Ace has woken up, Luffy realises he probably woke as soon as Luffy touched him. 

His brother’s eyes are wide, they’re looking at him with trepidation.

Luffy doesn’t like that gaze, Ace shouldn’t be afraid of him. 

_ Why is he afraid? _

Letting go of the leg gently, Luffy sits down on the tiled floor.

Ace’s eyes trail all his movements. 

It’s only when he meets his brother’s gaze head on that Ace looks away, he looks ashamed.

Luffy doesn’t understand.

“Where did you get these?” He asks. Ace doesn’t like how flat his tone is, he can see it. 

But Ace also looks like he’s misunderstood something. He looks confused. Like he’d planned out what Luffy would say or do in his mind only for him to not do any of them. 

“Ace?” He tries to get his brother to focus back on him and to answer him.

“Aren’t you angry?” He asks, and Luffy who still  _ doesn’t understand _ , shakes his head. 

“Why would I be?” Ace’s eyes flash with opportunity, and then acceptance.

It feels like minutes pass before he speaks again.

“The answer to your question.. Could it wait till later?” And Luffy kind of wants to demand an answer now, but his brother looks nervous, and Luffy kind of guesses he’s not going to like whatever answer Ace has for him.

“Sure” He ends up saying instead. Getting back up, he takes Ace’s towell and hands him it.

“Oh right dinner’s ready, I’ll go and plate it up” He says and leaves the bathroom.

It doesn’t take long before Ace shows up and sits down by the kitchen counter. His brother eats and drinks what’s placed in front of him, but Luffy can tell it’s more autopilot than him actually doing it. He’s not going to say anything, not going to pry, he already told himself to have Ace come to him. Later. And he’s going to keep that promise.

When they’re done, Ace stays seated as Luffy reaches for his plate and cutlery.

“I’ll wait for you upstairs” He says and gets up. Luffy doesn’t say anything, he just does the dishes trying not to think about it too much. Which shouldn’t be too hard, he hates thinking.

Finishing up, he dries his hands before walking towards the stairs. The door is open and the light is on, walking into the room he closes the door and turns off the light before joining Ace in their bed. His brother’s lying beneath the blanket, back turned towards him. 

It’s completely silent. Luffy’s not good at comforting others, he never knows what to say, or he says the wrong thing (Makino called it being too straightforward), it’s always him being comforted and never the other way around. 

So he decides to do what Ace always does whenever he’s upset.

He reaches out and turns his brother to face him, before encircling him with his arms, squishing Ace’s face into his chest tucked beneath his chin. He hears (and feels) his brother’s breath hitch. Settling a hand in his hair, Luffy let’s his fingers slowly go back and forth in the long dark locks. He feels Ace’s own arms encircle his waist and pull him closer.

Still, Luffy waits. Waits till Ace feels like he can talk, waits till he’s ready. His hand never stills, his other trailing a slow rhythm on his brother’s back, tracing his spine. 

“You… asked me where I got..” He starts. Luffy nods, hoping to convey his meaning.

_ You don’t have to say it if you don’t want to. _

“Right.. So, uh.. How much do you remember of where I was before we got here?” His brother asks, he sounds serious.

“We were just eating dinner” Luffy replies, a little confused as to why Ace would ask that as it hasn’t even been an hour, but he’s not going to question his brother right now.

He feels Ace let out what he guesses is an involuntary small laugh. 

“I meant before.. Before we moved in. When we were separated” He says and Luffy’s mind goes  _ Ooo right, that makes sense. _

“Not much, sorry” 

“That’s alright, I didn’t expect you too” He says and Luffy feels a little like he let his brother down somehow. But he doesn’t voice this, he just waits for Ace to continue. 

“I didn’t realise how messed up that place was till we started living here. For years I thought that was the standard, that nothing was wrong with it. I remember thinking to myself, that mom and the life before Iyasu was the odd one.” 

Luffy wonders if this is Ace’s way of telling him that she would hurt him, wound him. 

“She.. She told everyone I was sick in the head. That I couldn’t be trusted. And after a while, I started to question myself. People, everyone near and around me, would always give me a look that was a cross between disgust and pity. I always wondered what I’d done wrong, because it felt like everything I did was wrong, that I was wrong” 

His brother barely stops to breathe, and Luffy’s hands apply a little more force to them, not enough to hurt, but enough to make sure Ace takes a breath and stops his word vomit.

“Iyasu would use me to get attention, I later found out that the neighbors and her friends would give her money for my medication, medication I wasn’t on. She told people she was afraid to sleep in the house because of me. But no one would tell me what I did wrong. But then Sandra started to visit and.. And she’d start shouting matches and sometimes fistfights. Because of me.

Because of how I was. And it made me want to hide. I felt like it was my fault this household was breaking apart. Of course I know now that wasn’t the case. That Sandra was concerned for me, because I didn’t brush my teeth or shower. Because I lived in a room with maggots, flies with the stench of rot and death filling it.”

Luffy can’t imagine doing that. He has a hard time imagining Ace doing it, too. His brother has very well evolved into a clean freak.

Luffy wonders if that’s because he was living in filth.

He stops thinking about it.

“And.. And then I was sent to a mental facility on the claim I was sick. Of course I protested but no one believed me. They were vary of me and would watch me every step of the day. What for, I don’t know, but at the time I didn’t mind, I was just confused. 

But then they did the test. They got my trust and then stabbed me in the back. 

And I remember.. I remember wondering at some point if it was true, if I really was as sick as they, as She had made me out to be. I thought.. I thought the life before her, was maybe a fever dream. And I didn’t question it too much, because I would spend my days when I was locked in my room daydreaming to pass the time and distract myself from the dark.”

Luffy knows his brother is repeating himself, knows he’s trying to talk to him about how he feels.

Luffy also knows that if he ever met that woman he’d stab her. 

“So when I started to think that I actually was as sick as she said, my mind accepted it, because I couldn’t understand why else they would treat me the way they did. 

I came to the conclusion I was sick and wrong, and I remember crying to Iyasu and apologising. I kept apologising to her, all the time, her and everyone else. I apologised for being the person I am and for troubling them. I thanked her for letting me stay anyway. 

When I saw you again Luffy, when I saw your eyes light up with recognition I… I felt relieved. But I also felt confused… I no longer knew what was wrong with me.” 

Luffy wants to tell his brother there’s nothing wrong with him, but he stays quiet. 

“So while we’ve been living here, I still sometimes just try to find out what it is I did that was so bad, that they’d treat me like so. I still tried to justify what they did because surely I was the one in the wrong. Of course that changed, but… I sometimes forget. 

Sometimes, I think I’m still in that bedroom and that this is all a daydream.

Sometimes, I can’t feel, think, or do anything, it all feels like noise under my skin and inside my head, and I can’t reason with myself. 

And then one day while I was cooking dinner, that quiet hum of  _ ‘’wrong’’ _ , the buzz beneath my skin; It was silenced.” 

He sounds hopeful, if but a little guilty, and a heavy stone settles in Luffy’s gut. 

“I had accidentally cut myself on the base of my thumb. But I didn’t notice it for the silence. I was too busy staring at the red pooling on my hand. And… And it felt good? I felt level headed and calm. Something I haven’t done in years. I did eventually snap out of it, but the feelings, I couldn’t forget it. And.. And one day, my head, the buzzing, it was all so loud and I didn’t feel real, nothing felt real and I longed for that small amount of relief...So..I.. I cut myself in the bathroom on my forearm using one of the knives from the kitchen.” 

Luffy’s heart stills for a moment and he feels his eyes wetten. He blinks and tries to keep his breathing under control, even if his chest has been shattered.

He gets it, why Ace reacted the way he did in the bathroom.

And Luffy wants to hug and kiss his brother, wants to do it so many times that some of the love he feels for him is indebted into his body, till he can feel it himself.

But he doesn’t say anything. 

“And so.. I just kept on doing it… I moved on to my legs for more room. And… And I wanted to hide them from you, from Makino. From everyone. 

They all used so much time and money and energy taking us in, patching you up, and here I am, hurting myself like that. I.. I was ashamed. I  _ Am  _ ashamed. The shame made it worse, it exists like a constant itch on my insides, and the only way to stop it is to keep doing it. Some days I feel like I’m really of Iyasu’s blood and it makes me want to scratch open my veins. Some days I can’t quite grasp what’s going on around me. Most days I struggle to tell reality apart from dreams.” 

Luffy’s fingers shake a little with self restraint, he wants to hit that woman, hit her till she’s choking on her own tongue. He tightens his hold on Ace and, using his legs, crushes him tighter to his body, legs encircle his brother’s waist. 

“I’m so-”

“Don’t.” Luffy cuts his brother off. He doesn’t want an apology. He doesn’t want any self blame, nothing. All he wants is for his brother to be alright.

His brother tenses slightly, and scoots his face out from where it’s tucked beneath Luffy’s chin. Luffy lets him so he can look him in the eyes,

Ace’s eyes are scared. He’s expecting Luffy to lash out. Or maybe he’s expecting him to scold him.

“I don’t want an apology. You don’t have anything to apologise for” He says, and he sees the doubt in his eyes.

“I sometimes think you don’t exist,” He says.

“But not because you want to think it” He replies. 

“Is there anything else that.. Grounds you?” He asks his brother, using the term he used. 

Ace blinks, it looks like he didn’t expect that question.

He breaks eye contact with Luffy. 

“Sometimes your presence quiets it too. Especially at night, when I can hear your heartbeat or feel you close” He answers and Luffy feels a bit happy about that. 

“Then use me. In any shape or form, if I can help you like that, don’t hesitate” 

Luffy punctuates this by pulling Ace’s head back beneath his chin. 

“You’re not angry?” His brother asks, though it’s hard to hear, his voice muffled by Luffy’s shirt.

“Not at you, no. You haven’t done anything wrong” He says.

He feels his brother nod, and ignores the wetness of his shirt. 


	10. Talks of the future

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They have a talk about the future.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings;
> 
> Talk of bringing harm to a child.

After that event a couple years ago, Ace would grab his wrist at random times or places, Luffy later realised it was to feel his pulse. 

Whenever either of them had to leave a room, they’d give each other a peck and clutch the others hand. 

If Makino or anyone else noticed the change, they didn’t mention it. 

But then again, Ace had always been overprotective, too.

Luffy thinks to his blonde brother for a moment. 

It’s been nearly ten years since he’s seen Sabo. He wonders how he’s doing, if he’s happy. If he thinks of them as much as they think of him.

Sabo was just as bad, if not worse, than Ace when it came to Luffy. While Ace was letting Luffy cling to him and would make sure no one so much as looked at him wrong, Sabo was sweet words of comfort and reassurance. Of sneaking food beneath the table, of sharing his toys or bits of knowledge he knew neither would remember. 

Ace sometimes feels guilty that only he and Luffy got away.

Luffy always tells him that they don’t know where he is, but one day they’ll find him again.

Luffy sometimes worries that Sabo doesn’t remember them or won’t recognize them.

Despite sharing the same fear, Ace always tells him he’s sure Sabo knows who they are.

They’d been living in Shanks’s house for four years now. 

Over the years, the visits have dwelled as Ace slowly neared turning 18, and Shanks himself picked up even longer shifts and would sometimes be gone for a several weeks.

The only one who still visited them at least once a week was Makino, who’d started taking classes so she could fulfill her dream of becoming a teacher. She still gave them homework, but not as much as she used to.

Luffy’s favourite days are when both Shanks and Makino are there, the days where Makino would stay for the night, because they’d all watch a movie or have a feast where they’d be cooking together. He loved those nights.

Today was such a night, they were all seated by the kitchen counter, Shanks and Makino had pulled some of the stools to sit opposite Ace and Luffy. 

They’d told them they wanted to speak with Ace. Luffy was only sitting there because he was curious, but neither Makino or Shanks minded. 

“You’ve really grown up, huh?” Shanks says with a softness they don’t often hear in his voice. 

Ace had changed a lot since coming here. He went from being aggressive and distrusting, to the calm and rational jokester he is today. Luffy hasn’t changed much. 

Ace smiles an easygoing smile.

“What this big softy here means, is that you’re turning 18 in almost 6 months.” Makino says, a teasing glint to her eyes. Shanks’s face reddens.

“And we were thinking.. Well, what do you think of finishing your last year of school in an actual highschool?” Shanks says. 

Ace blinks. When they’d asked to talk to him, this wasn’t on the list of things he expected. 

“We figured that since there’s still some time left till Luffy turns 18, that you could go to a highschool in town to get your diploma. That way, you’ll have an easier way of integrating back into society. If you agree, you’ll be starting next summer.” Makino finishes. Ace thinks it's sweet, the way they take turns talking like that. They’re such close friends and it sends a nice warm feeling in his chest to know. 

Looking to his side, he looks at his dorky kid brother who turned 15 some months ago. Luffy’s still short, but he’s likely going to start growing soon. He thinks. His eyes go to his brother's scar beneath his eye, the way it sticks out to his tan skin. Before meeting warm brown eyes, that are silently asking him if he’s okay.

The warm feeling intensifies, and he ruffles Luffy’s hair.

“I like that idea, actually. It’ll also help me prepare for when Luffy turns 18. I want him to be able to go to school, too.” Ace says and turns back to Makino and Shanks. 

They both look at the familiar display of the brothers.

Wondering if it should worry them if they can tell that Ace’s biggest motivator is helping his brother, but they’re quick to reassure themselves that this is nothing new.

Makino thinks about how protective they are of each other.

Shanks thinks to the literal blood they’ve spilled to them the other safe.

But they’re good boys, they know this, so they let it go.

“Yeah! I’d love to go back to school. It’s been so long!” Luffy says, Ace snorts.

“Well duh. What was it like, last time you went to school?” Ace asks. Luffy doesn’t talk about when he lived with Law or Rosinante much. 

“Hm.. I don’t remember much. The kids didn’t like me much. I’m pretty sure they were scared of Law or Cora-san. One time when they called him to pick me up, everyone avoided us.” Luffy says with a small frown. 

“Why did you need to be picked up? I thought you said Law would walk you to school?”

“Oh, he did. They called Cora-san to pick me up because I was suspicious” 

Ace, Makino and Shanks all turn their heads in confusion. 

“Suspicious?” Makino asks.

“Super?” Luffy asks back.

Shanks looks like he’s going to either start laughing, or start crying in confusion.

Ace has an idea what his brother is trying to say, but he hopes he’s wrong.

“Lu… Is the word you’re looking for ‘suspended’ ?” He asks anyway.

Luffy’s eyes light up.

“Yes! That! They called Cora-san because I was suspended”

Shanks’s eyes widen, Makino’s mouth opens slightly agape. Ace understands. 

Because Luffy might be troublesome now and then, but what did he do to get himself  _ suspended _ ???

“Why? What happened?” Ace asks. Unable to really comprehend it.

“Some kid stole my pokemon cards.” 

“What?? Why would they suspend you if he was the one who stole them?”

“They said it was because I pushed him down the stairs” 

A pause. Makino looks like she can’t imagine that in her mind. 

To be fair, Ace can’t imagine it either.

Shanks looks like he can imagine it, but that he’s still a bit confused.

“Well did you?” Shanks asks.

“Oh? Yeah” Luffy replies nonchalantly. 

“You pushed a kid down the stairs?” 

“Yeah” 

“Why”

“Well it wasn’t deliberate!” Luffy says. Makino hasn’t said anything since the revelation. Ace is trying to understand what could make Luffy do this.

“Okay then. What happened to make the kid fall down the stairs, and why were you suspended for it?” Ace asks, hoping Luffy actually starts from the bottom and explains. 

“Well Law gave me some of his old pokemon cards so I had a deck. I brought them to school because I wanted to show some other kids during lunch break. But when I went to get it after lunch, the deck was gone. So I searched every kid in my class’s backpack and I found it in Kidd’s backpack. Of course I wanted to talk to him about it, so I went looking for him. When I found him he ran, dunno why, so I chased him and told him to stop. He said he didn’t do anything, and I told him that he had no need to run then. He stopped by the stairs, so I ran up to him and punched him in the back.” Luffy says and shrugs.

Ace rubs his face in exasperation.

At that moment, the other three think in unison;

_ Is it okay to let him back into school?  _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Also Ace later on thinks that he's a bit of a hypocrite berating Luffy in his head for pushing a kid down the stairs lol)


	11. The channel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luffy finds a channel on their TV.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is just smut.  
> You can skip if you want, the next chapter will be smut as well before getting back into the plot, though since some of the smut will be hinted at in the future of those chapters, you won't miss much. It's mainly for humours sake.  
> Also this is the last chapter I can post for now, the rest will be posted soon:,)
> 
> Hope whoever read this far has enjoyed it. Thank you.

The day after had Shanks leaving for another long shift, and Makino left in the afternoon as well, which meant that the two boys were alone like they often were. 

It was a pretty hot day, too, so neither really wanted to do much, not even start on the homework Makino gave them before she left. They were sprawled on the couch, Ace hanging upside down with closed eyes, Luffy could hear him trying to memorize the grammar rules from the assignment, that lay on his brother’s bare stomach. Luffy was sitting upright, channel surfing, his discarded homework lay on the coffee table in front of him.

The heat had completely utterly destroyed any means of focus he’d had in him.

So instead he was going through every single channel on their Tv, which he’d never done, as they always used the same three channels. Spying the number, 122, in the corner, he realised there were a lot of channels. A lot of which he understood nothing about, like a random polish news channel he’d gone by. 

He continues to surf, hoping that there’s something to catch his attention, even if just a little.

Just as he wonders if he should stop, the channel he lands on makes his eyes go wide.

It’s two people, men, he guesses, and they’re kissing. He thinks. It looks like it, but it’s pretty violent. 

They’re both in their boxers, Luffy thinks it must be really hot in their rooms for them not to freeze. He’d freeze if it were him. 

One of the men reaches down to pat the front of the other man’s boxers and Luffy blanches at the sight, he’d only gotten hitten there once, accidentally even, but that _hurt_. 

Ace, hearing his brother’s sound of protest, opens his eyes and glances up at him. Luffy looks.. Appalled, for lack of a better term. Sitting up, he looks at the Tv.

“What’s up?” He asks his brother, who points to the screen.

“Why would he hit him there??? That hurts!” He says. Ace looks back to the screen and takes a better look at the two men on it. 

“It doesn’t look like he’s hitting him,” Ace notes out loud. It looks more like he’s stroking him.

“But the sounds! He sounds like he’s in pain. And if he’s not hitting him, then what Is he doing?” He asks. 

"Nah. Remember the time we had to give Shanks stitches? Grunts of pain sounds different, those ain't it" 

“You’re right, it IS different,” He says finally. Ace smirks. 

After a seemingly last loud and wet sounding kiss, the two separate, only for one of them to go down on his knees, kissing the others chest and stomach. Ace and Luffy watch as the man pulls down the others underwear, the man's dick standing up and nearly hitting the other in the face. 

Ace, who is 17, has had his fair share of ‘standing up dick’ moments (as he’d dubbed them) but since Luffy, also a man, had had some as well, they figured it was a normal guy thing and let it be. 

The man presses a wet kiss on the tip, before taking it into his mouth.

Ace’s eyes widen, and a part of his brain screams ‘ _That can’t be hygienic’_. Luffy turns to look at him, he looks flabbergasted. 

“Why did he bite it off?!?! ACE?? Why would he do that?!” His brother asks, talking so fast Ace takes a little longer than usual to process. 

Looking back to the screen, he notices the man has not bitten it off, there’s no blood.

_“Ah yeah, suck my cock you slut”_ The man not on his knees says. 

“I don’t think that’s what’s happening, Lu” Ace says. He wonders if Slut is the other guy's name. 

Luffy looks back to the scene at that, watching the man bob his head back and forth. 

“Then what is happening?” He asks, and Ace hmms in contemplation. 

They obviously know what they’re doing, and it’s not about pain, seeing as neither are screaming. They both make grunts, but it sounds to him more like grunts of effort.

And the man’s face, the one not on his knees, is smiling. 

Ace remembers the start of the scene, where the two of them were kissing? Or at least, attempting to. 

Maybe it’s like that, then?

“What if it’s like kissing?” He says aloud.

“Like kissing?” Luffy echoes.

“Yeah. Like, kissing is a thing you do with people you care about right?” Ace says. 

Luffy’s eyes widen and get that excitable sparkle to them.

“Ah! So there’s another level to it!Like how kissing people on the forehead, cheek and nose means you care, and kissing on the lips means you really care! Then is kissing like they did maybe the next level? Ah, but Makino said that you only kiss special people on the mouth” Luffy rambles on with Ace’s idea, who nods at him as he talks.

“Well they did kiss on the mouth. Maybe it’s us who have misunderstood the technique? Could be possible we’ve been doing it wrong all this time” Ace says. Luffy hums.

“Nah. I don’t think it’s something that’s so set in its ways, because how would everyone do it completely the same way? Maybe there’s multiple ways and we all have one we like the most?” Luffy says, and Ace wonders briefly if his brother’s gotten a brain tumor or something. Logical Luffy are few and far between, after all.

“I think you’re right, actually” He says and Luffy flashes him a huge sunny smile, before scooching closer to Ace. 

Seeing the recognizable glint in his brother's eyes, he lets Luffy give him a quick peck. 

His brother pulls back as soon as he came close, and Ace watches Luffy’s unsatisfied pout and thinking eyes. 

The next time he closes in again, Ace isn’t prepared for Luffy’s mouth being slightly open, but he matches up quickly and opens his own in turn. 

This kiss is.. Longer. Than the usual pecks.

It also feels pretty good, if he’s honest. Leaning against the armrest, he pulls Luffy closer, his brother understands the idea right away, and crawls onto Ace’s lap. Ace’s arms encircle Luffy’s waist, he feels the others arms land on his shoulders.

They don’t break the kiss, in fact, Ace thinks it gets more heated the longer it goes on. Luffy’s mouth opens a little wider, and Ace feels his brother's tongue trail his lower lip. He gets with the program and meets him with his own. 

The fire in his veins feel like it’s going to erupt at any point, pooling between his thighs in an unfamiliar, but good - very good - sensation. 

Luffy breaks the kiss after what seems like minutes, he’s smiling and has the usual satisfactory look to his eyes after a kiss. Ace smiles back in turn.

“That was good!” He says and Ace lifts an arm to ruffle his brother's hair.

“Maybe that’s the point?” Luffy asks no one but himself. Ace blinks and waits on him to continue. 

“Kissing, hugging, talking, it all feels good right?” He nods. 

“Well what if that’s the point? Doing this stuff with someone you care about, so you both feel good and have fun?” He says and Ace gets it. That makes a lot of sense, actually. He’s a little surprised Luffy came up with it. He nods again. Ace smiles and nods, he likes that idea, and that he can do them with luffy, nothing makes him happier than the thought of making luffy, his baby brother, feel good and content, happy.

“Then let's make sure to do a lot of feel good stuff together, Ace!” Luffy says, before diving back in, barely giving him time to prepare, for another kiss.

They pull apart again after a while much like the last kiss, this one just as heated. Luffy looks down, before meeting his eyes again. He’s got that determined look to his eyes that Ace reads as _‘trust me’._

Ace silently conveys that he’d trust Luffy with his life.

Luffy’s hand reaches down to the front of his pajama pants and presses slightly. Ace’s breath hitch in his throat in surprise. 

“Does that hurt?” Luffy’s eyes flash to his. He hasn’t removed his hand. 

Ace shakes his head no.

Luffy’s hand presses firmlier, before rubbing in a slow up and down motion.

Ace can’t hold back the sound his throat makes. 

His brother catches his eyes, and he shakes his head again.

Luffy goes in for another kiss, Ace accepts with open eyes and let’s his arms go from his waist to his shoulders. As Luffy’s hand adds pressure and increases the speed of his rubbing, Ace’s involvement in the kiss becomes sloppy, at best. 

Luffy pulls back to survey his brother’s face, it’s flushed red, lips glistening with spit and his eyes look darker than normal. 

Making up his mind, he steps off the couch, his hand fisting Ace’s pant leg, gesturing for his brother to turn as well, his legs on the floor. Luffy, sitting down between them with his knees on the floor next to Ace’s feet. 

He’s eyeing him curiously, Luffy can hear him breathe heavily. Gripping his brother's waistband, he tucks the pants and boxers down in one swoop to let it pool by his ankles. Ace’s eyes widen, but he doesn’t move to stop him.

His hands slide over his brother's thighs, spreading them a little wider to make room for himself. He sees Ace twitch at every hot exhale. Reaching out tentatively, he touches Ace’s still standing dick, firm pressure in hand. 

Ace gasps beneath him, and he looks up at the wide eyed flushed face of his brother.

“Tell me if it hurts at any point, okay?” He says, seriously. He doesn’t continue till Ace nods.

Opening his mouth, he lets his tongue glide slowly up the shaft. He gives the head a little kiss, before taking it in. 

_‘It’s salty, but not bad.’_ Luffy thinks as he imitates the man from the screen, sucking the member deeper and deeper, till he’s nosing at the nest of black pubic hair. 

Going back and forth, he establishes a rhythm. Opening his eyes, his gaze goes up and lands on his brother’s face. 

Ace’s mouth is hanging open slightly, his face is completely flushed with small beads of sweat glistening on his forehead, black hair clinging to it. 

Their eyes meet, and Ace’s gaze is intense, so intense that Luffy feels like Ace is about to completely devour him with it alone. 

Luffy would let him if that’s what Ace wanted.

He speeds up his rhythm and tries to apply pressure with his tongue, but he doesn’t close his eyes again, instead trying to keep eye contact with Ace.

Ace feels like he’s on fire.

And somehow the gaze of his little brother intensifies it, he feels like molten lava is burning up his organs, pooling by the base of his spine and deep in his stomach.

And he likes it.

Watching as Luffy bops his head up and down, spit drooling from chin and drying on his hair and thighs, and somehow Ace has never felt this.. Connected to his brother. He feels an overwhelming need to embrace him till his spine cracks, to tear him open so he can drink his insides, and Ace doesn’t know or understand what to do with it as he drowns in the dark pools of Luffy’s gaze. 

When Luffy decides to try and _swallow_ at the same time, Ace feels like he blacks out for a minute, and his brother seems to notice as he makes a _Hmm?_ , and Ace can’t stop the way his legs and thighs shake. 

As the pace speeds up again, Ace feels a bunch of sounds force themselves out of his throat, he almost feels like howling in pleasure. He can’t believe something could feel so _good_? 

He resists closing his eyes, not wanting to lose eye contact, the heat feels like it’s going to erupt while gathering simultaneously together between his thighs and stomach. 

When Luffy’s tongue applies more pressure and he feels a gentle, so gentle, scrape of teeth on the underside of his shaft, Ace’s vision completely whites out as all the heat forces itself to explode. 

He’s pretty sure he forgets to breathe. 

When his vision clears, he sees Luffy lick his lips, hands on his thighs and an audible swallow. 

There’s something white drooling from the corner of his lip.

Ace feels himself twitch slightly at the sight, and he wonders what’s up with that.

He blinks and realises he’s bone tired all of a sudden.

Still trying to catch his breath, he reaches out with a hand and places it on Luffy’s own, the heat of it helping his erratic heartbeat start to calm down. 

“How was that, Ace?” His brother asks. 

“That was.. Really really good, actually” He says and Luffy’s eyes light up. A broad smile stretches out on his face. 

“Really? Great! I’m glad you felt good Ace! That makes me feel good!” Luffy says, before getting up. Ace would follow him, he feels a deep need to touch his brother and be close, but he’s still catching his breath.

Luffy comes back shortly after with what looks to be a wet washcloth in his hands. Before he can start cleaning up what Ace guesses is his thighs, he reaches for it. 

Luffy lets him take it easily, and with his other hand he guides Luffy to sit down in front of him again. With a hand on his chin holding his face, he wipes his mouth, cheek and chin down with the warm cloth. Luffy smiles and snickers at him.

After that he gives him the washcloth back, and Luffy cleans Ace’s thighs, carefully wiping away spit and some of the white sticky stuff that had run down Luffy’s chin. He then pushes his brother's pants back up, before going back into the kitchen and throwing the wet and now dirty cloth into the sink. He rinses his mouth quickly with tap water (that white stuff wasn’t tasty) before going back to the couch. He’s about to sit back down where he sat before, but Ace, who had moved while he’d been to the kitchen, grabs his wrist and guides him to lay between his open bent at the knee legs.

Doing so, he uses his brother’s chest as a cushion. It’s nice and comfy, he wouldn’t mind doing this more often. Ace’s arms encircle his waist, and Luffy picks back up the remote to continue his channel surfing.

But not without committing the previous channel number to memory. 

He wants to learn more feel good stuff to do with Ace.


	12. First times

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ace and Luffy try out some more 'feel good stuff'.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, this is literally just smut.  
> Also, it might be obvious, but I headcanon Luffy as a sex neutral Aro-Ace, so if it seems like that, well.. That's why ahah.  
> I'm really sorry if anyone came to read this story hoping for a fall-in-love type of thing, but I don't really like that personally.  
> Also I apologize if the smut seems dry. I don't really read smut (or care much for it) But it kind of needs to be present for me to get to the part, the reason, I wrote this fic, which'll be next chapter.
> 
> Warnings:  
> Underage sexual intercourse  
> Please be aware that some of the wording makes it seem like Luffy isn't a willing participant But this is not the truth! Luffy in this story doesn't feel the want or need for sex, but it feels good so he doesn't mind it. He mostly enjoys it because Ace enjoys it. But he's completely willing!.

Over the course of the month, Luffy and Ace have been experimenting more with the feel good stuff.

They’d tried to just touch themselves and each other, figuring out what felt the best between them.

Ace also tried the mouth-thing that Luffy did to him, he liked it. 

Luffy’s favourite thing about the whole experimentation was making Ace feel good, which in turn, made him feel good. Ace prefers it when they both are. 

They figured out they had preferences to touch, and how they both reacted to feel good stuff.

Ace’s thoughts had been consumed by it, images of Luffy popping it at random instances during the day. He quickly realised he liked it rough and at a fast pace, and he almost always blacks out feeling overwhelmingly good whenever Luffy uses his mouth and bites his inner thighs. 

Luffy on the other hand never thought of it, not in the wanting sense, more factually. He really enjoyed doing the feel good stuff! But they discovered that while Ace is quick to enter what they’d dubbed, the feel good mood, Luffy… not so much. 

Luffy mainly enjoys making Ace feel good, but when Ace returns the favour and makes him feel good too, that makes him happy. 

Luffy likes it rough and fast paced as well, but he also really likes a slow pace with good pressure and kisses. Lots of kisses. He really likes being kissed on his throat. Ace bit him there once, and he really enjoyed that. 

So, since it’d been more than a month since they started, Luffy decided to venture to that channel again, in hopes of learning something new. 

This time, Ace is sitting with him fully paying attention to the screen. On his lap is one of his notebooks that he uses for homework notes. When Luffy asked, Ace said he’d write down anything of interest so they don’t forget. 

Turning on the tv, Luffy quickly clicks to the right channel.

This time, there’s three people in various states of undress. One of them is a woman, the other two men.

One of the men, a brunette, opens his mouth to talk. 

_“Are you sure your boyfriend wants to join?” He asks the woman._

Luffy wonders if his assessment was wrong. They both look like boys to him, but the man states it like there’s only one. Izou once told him not to judge people based on their looks, and that there’s more to people than boy or girl. He’s glad for that, now it makes more sense. 

The woman who’s only wearing underwear beckons the other person over, the assumed male friend of hers. 

_“He will” She starts, “In fact, I’m dying to see you two going all out and have sex with each other”_

Ace writes something down. Luffy continues watching. 

The two go along with it, the man and brunette start kissing each other as the woman watches, her hands gliding up and down her body. 

Ace looks to the side at Luffy, he can tell his brother is watching with slight interest and slight boredom, likely waiting for something new to happen. Ace looks down at himself, starting to enter the ‘feel good’ mood. It doesn’t help watching those two on the screen, his brain imagining it as himself and Luffy instead. Yeah that doesn’t help at all. 

Knowing the differences between himself and his brother, how luffy didn’t think about it to feel good, he did it because it felt good and Ace enjoyed it, and that was that.

Ace figured it was different from person to person.

As it goes on, Ace starts to fidget.His pants feel tight and suffocating, and his hands itch to relieve himself. His eyes follow his brother’s chest movement as he breathes, and he wants to touch, to kiss, to lick his body.

If Luffy notices his slight restlessness, he doesn’t say anything.

Finally, the woman moves. She goes to sit on a bed along the headboard and she asks them which one would prefer to be bottom out of the two, she’ll ‘fuck’ them good and rough’ (those were the words she used) but only if they fuck each other first. 

Ace writes down the word (at least how he guesses it’s spelled), he’ll cross reference his notes afterwards.

The brunette says he’s fine being on bottom. The man grins and gestures to the bed and the brunette lays down stomach facing up, legs bent at the knee with feet planted on the mattress. The woman throws off her underwear and watches them. 

The man starts off by pulling down his and his partners pants, before sloppily kissing thighs and taking the standing member into his mouth. The woman gets up on her knees to go to a drawer besides the bed. From there, she hands the man a clear tube.

Then she sits on the brunette's face. Luffy wonders if she’s trying to suffocate him. 

The man lifts one of the brunette's legs, hoists it onto his shoulder, before he opens the tube and squirts some thick.. Goo? Out onto his fingers. It’s also clear. Luffy’s kind of reminded of toothpaste. 

The goo-covered hand trails down to the brunette’s butt, sliding down between the cheeks. Luffy is now paying full attention. This is something he hasn’t seen before. 

The camera filming all of this zooms in on the view of the tight red ring of muscle, a single finger circling it with the clear goo on it, before slowly entering. 

Zooming back out, you hear the person grunt. The woman is also being loud, but the brothers are ignoring her. 

The man starts a rhythm, slowly pulling his finger back out before pushing back in. 

After a while, he inserts another coated finger. The person grunts some more and the man pauses. He’s waiting for something, it seems like. When the person’s hand gives a thumbs up, he starts the rhythm again. The woman reaches down to take the member into her mouth, making it go back to full hardness quickly. The brunette’s sounds of pleasure become more evident now that she’s not completely covering their face. Luffy still wonders silently what was up with that. 

When the man adds another finger, even more carefully than before, the woman slips off the brunette who hisses. The man pauses, waits for a moment before the brunette nods. The man picks up the rhythm, the woman, sitting by their sides, reaches out again and strokes the brunette a couple times till the sounds restart. 

The brunette says he’s good and to go ahead, the man nods and the woman is watching.

He then lifts a leg up on his shoulder and settles between them on his knees, the woman hands him a pillow that he places beneath the other’s hips. He squirts some more of the clear lotion to his dick and slowly starts to insert it into the brunette’s ass like he did his fingers. Both Luffy and Ace are staring at this, slightly surprised. There’s grunts and the man stops as he’s completely balls deep, then waits a moment, till he’s gotten a nod, and then he starts moving back and forth slowly.

Luffy watches Ace as he writes down a lot in his notebook. When he looks back at the screen the brunette makes more ‘feel good’ sounds, and the other starts to speed up, they seem to enjoy that, and soon after the white stuff comes out from both of them, though not the woman. She says thanks for the cum, which they assume is the white stuff,some more stuff happens but Luffy turns off the Tv at that, then he looks at Ace.

“What do you say, Ace? Should we try the sex?” He’s pretty sure he remembered correctly. Ace doesn’t correct him at least. His brother reads through his notes once more before nodding with a smile.

“Do we have any clear lotion?” Luffy asks his brother. Ace pauses for a moment, mentally going over a catalogue of existing items in their house.

“Yeah I think so. Hold on,” Getting up from the couch and into the bathroom, he looks through the drawers. If he remembers correctly, then they Should have vaseline somewhere. 

His search quickly ends when his fingers connect with the flat surface of the transparent bottle. 

Making a sound of triumph, he walks back to the living room.

Raising his hand and showing his find, Luffy smiles a toothy grin and runs ahead towards the bed. 

He’s not sure if the sex is only do-able in a bed, but for a first time it’s probably the best choice. They can always try out different stuff later.

When Ace enters their room, he finds Luffy already on the bed.

He’s laying in the middle, shirt discarded somewhere, only in boxers and with a pillow beneath his hips.

Seems like Luffy decided he’s going to be the ‘bottom’ on this first try. 

He’s not surprised, his brother’s made it his job to make sure it’s ‘feel good’ enough for them to do it - Ace suspects he doesn’t want to hurt him by accident, and respects that.

Even if it is frustrating sometimes.

He sighs good-naturally and smiles at his idiotic little brother.

Luffy, as if reading his mind, snickers unapologetic. What a brat. 

“Right then. Let's get you in the feel good mood.” Smirking back, Ace removes his own shirt and ´pants till he’s in a similar state of undress like Luffy is. He puts the vaseline on their nightstand for now, letting his fingers trail from a defined collarbone down to grip him at the waist. 

His other hand traces Luffy’s chin, guiding it towards him as he places a kiss on his slightly parted lips. 

Letting his hand roam, his fingertips touch the skin of his inner thighs. Ace deepens the kiss, letting their tongues meet in a dance. 

His fingers slowly trail upwards to his more than not interested form of his little brother. He rests his hand between his legs, applying a thin stroke of pressure before delving into his boxers.

He breaks the kiss. He mouths down his jawline, tongue cascading further downwards. He can feel Luffy’s pulse as it’s speeding up. 

Smirking against the warm skin, Ace leans further down. Placing small nips here and there, enjoying the way Luffy makes sounds of pleasure from it.

He pulls off his brother's boxers, one hand stroking him slowly. He noses the dark nest of curly hair before giving him a tentative lick. He knows he doesn’t need to go this far to bring Luffy into ‘the mood’, but watching the way his brother reacts is enjoyable, too.

Plus, he wants him to feel good.

“You ready, Luffy?” He asks. Luffy’s face is a little flushed, it makes his scar stand out. 

“Yeah” Ace doesn’t waste any time grabbing the vaseline. Clicking it open, he gently guides Luffy’s leg further apart so he can sit there comfortably. He checks to make sure the pillows still place nicely, before dipping a finger into the clear gel. 

Slowly bringing his covered finger to the ring of muscle, he circles it before pressing gently. 

Luffy stays relaxed beneath him and the finger goes in smoothly. 

He waits, keeps eye contact with his brother. Luffy gives him a go ahead gesture, and Ace mimics the slow goings the in-and-out motion they saw earlier. 

He spits in his other palm before taking his brother in a gently but tight grip. Luffy’s breath deepens. 

“I’m adding another finger. That alright?” He gets a nod. Carefully he pushes in a second digit, watching his brothers face for any discomfort. Ace’s other hand starts stroking slowly, he’s rewarded when Luffy fully rehardens. He resumes his motions, curling his fingers here and there and watching as Luffy’s face deepens it’s flush. He watches as sweat gathers on his brother's forehead and neck, watches a droplet of spit slowly flowing down by his chin.

He feels compelled to reach out and lick it, but also thinks that’s a little gross.

Instead, he adds the third and last finger. Luffy makes a quiet grunt of discomfort, so Ace goes down and takes him in his mouth while waiting for his brother to adjust or break it off. 

“Go ahead and move them” 

Doing as told, Ace carefully resumes his previous hand motions, still curling his fingers. 

He changes his wrist movement, and suddenly the hips beneath him stutter violently enough for Ace to let go so he doesn’t choke.

Looking up at Luffy, he meets his brother’s eyes. They’re darker than the depths of the ocean, and Ace wants to breathe it all in.

“That. That felt good” He says and Ace commits the movement to memory. 

He does it a couple of times with a flick of a wrist, and each time Luffy gasps out loud. 

He feels like getting drunk on those sounds.

Pulling his wet fingers out and throughrougly ignoring the sound it makes, he discards himself of his boxers. Using the remaining vaseline on his hands, he covers himself heftily. He also takes some extra from the clear bottle, just in case. 

Getting back between Luffy’s legs, he mimics what they saw earlier and lifts one limb to hang from his shoulder, feeling the heel of Luffy’s foot on his back. 

Lining up, he takes a deep breath before slowly pushing in. His other hand lazily stroking his brother while inch by inch disappears inside of him till he’s fully inserted. 

Staying still’s a lot harder than he expected, he feels like he’s surrounded by a wet warm, so warm, and constricting heat and it fills him with the need to move- 

But he stays still. Hand doesn’t stop stroking Luffy as he waits for his brother to give him the go ahead.

“M..Move” Is said between breaths, and Ace slowly pulls out about halfway before pushing back in, keeping up a steady rhythm. 

Letting go, his hand goes to steady Luffy’s hip, the other still holding onto his leg. 

Heavy breaths fill the room, the atmosphere feels like a low static laying in wait, wanting to strike at any moment. 

He speeds up slightly, and pulls out nearly all the way before pushing back in. Luffy’s legs spread further as his leg encircle Ace’s own hip. Adjusting the angle between thrusts, he waits for that tell-tale twitch of his brother. 

Luffy grunts hard, a grating sound in his throat as he finds the right point. Smirking, he makes sure to only thrust in that direction, speeding up some more. 

He meets his brother's eyes, they’re dark with something Ace doesn’t know what to call and glazed over. Dark hair plastered on his glistening skin, mouth hanging open. 

Ace wants to lose himself in the sight. 

Luffy’s arms, which had been laying above his head, move with grabbing motions towards him. Ace snickers, getting the hint and lets go of his leg before he leans down and covers his brother’s torso with his own. 

Hands grasp his back, the delightful stinging from short blunt nails makes him bite his lip. 

Speeding up, but still in that same direction, he begins to feel that tingling sensation starting by his feet, crawling up his legs leaving goosebumps in his wake. 

He wonders, and hopes, Luffy feels the same beginnings of climax build up.

Keeping it up, the scorching lines on his back makes him thrust harder. The sounds from beneath him edges him further on, till his rhythm and pace becomes erratic and he fills that hurricane of tingles clawing his thighs, makes his muscles contract and breath stop. Grunting, he tries to keep going as he climaxes, snaking a shaking hand between them and stroking his brother hard and fast.

It doesn’t even take more than a couple twists for Luffy to be spilling all over his hand with a shaky exhale himself. 

Letting go, he stays where he is, hovering over his brother’s flushed face, who’s eyes had shut during the end as his plaid mouth hung open. 

He kisses him on the nose. Luffy’s eyes open and blink a couple times, likely to focus, before a blinding smile makes its way onto his face. Ace answers with a smile of his own, snickering, he leans in to kiss his brother’s smiling mouth, playfully biting his lip. 

He makes a scandalized sound before laughing at Ace. That’s truly one of his favourite sounds in this whole world, it fills up his chest cavity with warmth that nothing else can. He laughs too. 

He slowly pulls himself out of his brother, also ignoring that sound, before standing up on shaky legs. 

“Let’s go ‘n shower, alright?” 

Luffy joins him excitingly. 

  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So.. The chap is actually shorter than it is in my outline, where I also had a small time skip and a bottom!Ace first time. But writing smut isn't my favourite thing, so I decided to get this part done and revised.   
> I will post the last of the chapters mid February at the latest, since school's started back up and I have a graduation paper that I have to finish. 
> 
> I might go back and add a bonus Bottom ace chapter though:)

**Author's Note:**

> Most of this is prewritten, I just need to look over and render the last parts. If you see something that doesn't make sense, please point it out to me and I'll look it over.  
> I am but one man, so it's possible I've overlooked something.


End file.
